WO2023048617A1 - Wireless terminal, network node and methods in a wireless communications network - Google Patents

Wireless terminal, network node and methods in a wireless communications network Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2023048617A1
WO2023048617A1 PCT/SE2022/050825 SE2022050825W WO2023048617A1 WO 2023048617 A1 WO2023048617 A1 WO 2023048617A1 SE 2022050825 W SE2022050825 W SE 2022050825W WO 2023048617 A1 WO2023048617 A1 WO 2023048617A1
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Prior art keywords
system information
wireless terminal
qoe
indication
requested
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PCT/SE2022/050825
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French (fr)
Inventor
Ali PARICHEHREHTEROUJENI
Luca LUNARDI
Pradeepa Ramachandra
Cecilia EKLÖF
Johan Rune
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Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (Publ)
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Publication of WO2023048617A1 publication Critical patent/WO2023048617A1/en

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/50—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
    • H04L41/5061—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements characterised by the interaction between service providers and their network customers, e.g. customer relationship management
    • H04L41/5067—Customer-centric QoS measurements
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/06—Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
    • H04L41/069—Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications using logs of notifications; Post-processing of notifications
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/08—Configuration management of networks or network elements
    • H04L41/0803—Configuration setting
    • H04L41/0813—Configuration setting characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings
    • H04L41/0816—Configuration setting characterised by the conditions triggering a change of settings the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
    • H04L43/04—Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
    • H04W28/02—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
    • H04W28/0231—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control based on communication conditions
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W28/00—Network traffic management; Network resource management
    • H04W28/02—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
    • H04W28/0268—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control using specific QoS parameters for wireless networks, e.g. QoS class identifier [QCI] or guaranteed bit rate [GBR]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04W—WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
    • H04W4/00—Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
    • H04W4/50—Service provisioning or reconfiguring
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/08—Configuration management of networks or network elements
    • H04L41/085—Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history
    • H04L41/0853—Retrieval of network configuration; Tracking network configuration history by actively collecting configuration information or by backing up configuration information
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L41/00—Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
    • H04L41/50—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements
    • H04L41/5041—Network service management, e.g. ensuring proper service fulfilment according to agreements characterised by the time relationship between creation and deployment of a service
    • H04L41/5051—Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
    • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
    • H04L43/0805—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters by checking availability
    • H04L43/0811—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters by checking availability by checking connectivity
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
    • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
    • H04L43/0852—Delays
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
    • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
    • H04L43/0876—Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
    • H04L43/0888—Throughput
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L43/00—Arrangements for monitoring or testing data switching networks
    • H04L43/08—Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
    • H04L43/0876—Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
    • H04L43/0894—Packet rate

Definitions

  • Embodiments herein relate to a wireless terminal, a network node, and methods therein. In some aspects, they relate to handling Quality of Experience (QoE) in a wireless communications network.
  • QoE Quality of Experience
  • Embodiments herein further relates to computer programs and carriers corresponding to the above methods, wireless terminal, and network node.
  • wireless devices also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or User Equipments (UE)s, communicate via a Wide Area Network or a Local Area Network such as a Wi-Fi 15 network or a cellular network comprising a Radio Access Network (RAN) part and a Core Network (CN) part.
  • RAN Radio Access Network
  • CN Core Network
  • the RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cell areas, which may also be referred to as a beam or a beam group, with each service area or cell area being served by a radio network node such as a radio access node e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks 20 may also be denoted, for example, a NodeB, eNodeB (eNB), or gNB as denoted in Fifth Generation (5G) telecommunications.
  • a service area or cell area is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node.
  • the radio network node communicates over an air interface operating on radio frequencies with the wireless device within range of the radio network node.
  • 3GPP is the standardization body for specify the standards for the cellular system evolution, e.g., including 3G, 4G, 5G and the future evolutions.
  • EPS Evolved Packet System
  • 4G Fourth Generation
  • 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
  • 5G New 30 Radio 5G New 30 Radio
  • Frequency bands for 5G NR are being separated into two different frequency ranges, Frequency Range 1 (FR1) and Frequency Range 2 (FR2).
  • FR1 comprises sub-6 GHz frequency bands. Some of these bands are bands traditionally used by legacy standards but have been extended to cover potential new spectrum offerings from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz
  • FR2 comprises frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. Bands in this millimeter wave range have shorter range but higher available bandwidth than bands in the FR1.
  • Multi-antenna techniques may significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system.
  • a wireless connection between a single user, such as UE, and a base station the performance is in particular improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, which results in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication channel.
  • MIMO Multiple-Input Multiple-Output
  • MIMO enables the users to communicate with the base station simultaneously using the same time-frequency resources by spatially separating the users, which increases further the cell capacity. This may be referred to as Multi-User (MU)-MIMO. Note that MU-MIMO may benefit when each UE only has one
  • Such systems and/or related techniques are commonly referred to as MIMO.
  • QoE measurements have been specified for LTE and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and it is being specified for NR.
  • UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System
  • Application layer measurement configuration received from Operation and Maintenance (QAM) or CN is encapsulated in a transparent container, which is forwarded to the UE in a downlink RRC message.
  • Application layer measurements received from the UE's higher layer are encapsulated in a transparent container and sent to network in an uplink RRC
  • the result container is forwarded to a Trace Collector Entity (TCE).
  • TCE Trace Collector Entity
  • the measurements may be initiated towards RAN in management-based manner, i.e. from an Operation and Maintenance (O&M) node in a generic way e.g., for a group of 5 UEs, or they may also be initiated in a signaling-based manner, i.e. initiated from CN to RAN e.g., for a single UE.
  • O&M Operation and Maintenance
  • the configuration of the measurement includes the measurement details, which is encapsulated in a container that is transparent to RAN.
  • the measurement When initiated via the core network, the measurement is started towards a specific UE.
  • the 'TRACE START' S1 AP message is used, which carries, 10 among others, the details about the measurement configuration the application should collect, in the "Container for application layer measurement configuration” Information Element (IE), transparent to the RAN, and the details to reach the trace collection entity to which the measurements should be sent.
  • IE Container for application layer measurement configuration
  • the RAN is not aware of when the streaming session is ongoing in the UE Access
  • One opportunity provided by legacy solution is also to be able to keep the QoE measurement for the whole session, even during handover situation.
  • the UE capability transfer is used to transfer UE radio access capability information from the UE to E-UTRAN.
  • Figure 1 illustrates a UE capability transfer in E-UTRAN.
  • the UE-EUTRA-Capability IE is used to convey the E-UTRA UE Radio Access Capability Parameters and the Feature Group Indicators for mandatory features to the network.
  • the UE can include the "UE- EUTRA-Capability” IE.
  • the “UE-EUTRA-Capability” IE may include the UE-EUTRA- Capability-v1530-1 E which can be used by the UE to indicate whether the UE supports or not QoE Measurement Collection for streaming services and/or MTSI services, as detailed in the "MeasParameters-v1530” enconding below.
  • the purpose of the “Application layer measurement reporting” procedure described in 3GPP TS 36.331 and shown below is to inform E-UTRAN about application layer measurement report.
  • Figure 2 illustrates application layer measurement reporting in E-UTRAN.
  • a UE capable of application layer measurement reporting in RRC_CONNECTED may initiate the procedure when configured with application layer measurement, i.e. when measConfigAppLayer has been configured by E-UTRAN.
  • the UE Upon initiating the procedure, the UE shall:
  • the RRCConnectionReconfiguration message is used to reconfigure the UE to setup or release the UE for Application Layer measurements. This is signaled in the measConfigAppLayer-15 IE within the “OtherConfig” IE.
  • the setup includes the transparent container measConfigAppLayerContainer which specifies the QoE measurement configuration for the Application of interest and the
  • serviceType IE indicates the Application (or service) for which the QoE measurements are being configured.
  • Supported services are streaming and MTSL
  • the MeasReportAppLayer RRC message is used by the UE to send to the E-UTRAN node the QoE measurement results of an Application 20 (or service).
  • the service for which the report is being sent is indicated in the “serviceType” IE.
  • MeasReportAppLayer message sent using Signalling Radio Bearer, SRB4.
  • MeasReportAppLayer message sent using Signalling Radio Bearer, SRB4.
  • On demand system acquisition is specified as part of the 3GPP TS 38.331.
  • SIB Information Blocks
  • si-BroadcastStatus will be set to broadcasting and the periodicity of the broadcasted SIB is provided as part of si-BroadcastStatus. If the system information is not broadcasted there are two methods for the UE to request for the system information of interest.
  • MSG1 based system information request is in this way that the si-BroadcastStatus for that SIB type will be set to notbroadcasting and the in case if the UE is interested to read at least one SIB it should follow the si-RequestConfig to figure out what RACH resources should be used to inform the network to broadcast the required SIB.
  • the si-BroadcastStatus for that SIB type will be set to notbroadcasting and the in case if the UE is interested to read at least one SIB it should follow the si-RequestConfig to figure out what RACH resources should be used to inform the network to broadcast the required SIB.
  • the si-RequestConfig is an optional field and exists if the RACH resources are configured for the system information request from the UE. If the si-RequestConfig does not exist, or RACH resources are configured for the on demand SI request, then the UE initiates the RRCSystemlnfoRequest (MSG3 based approach) to request the system information of interest from the network (this is shown by underlined text in the following).
  • the UE shall:
  • SIB1 includes si-Schedulinglnfo containing si-RequestConfigSUL and criteria to select supplementary uplink as defined in 3GPP TS 38.321, clause 5.1.1 is met:
  • si-RequestConfigSUL corresponding to the SI message(s) that the UE requires to operate within the cell, and for which si-BroadcastStatus is set to notBroadcasting;
  • SIB1 includes si-Schedulinglnfo containing si-Req uestConfig and criteria to select normal uplink as defined in 3GPP TS 38.321, clause 5.1.1 is met:
  • Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure should be initiated (either based on the configuration provided in MSG1 based method, or a contention-based method for MSG3 based solution). If the Random Access (RA) procedure is successful, a ra-Report will be logged by UE which 30 indicates the RA procedure performance. The content of the RA procedure is shown in the following excerpt of the 3GPP RRC TS 38.331. However, if the UE fails in random access procedure for requesting the system information, there is no action on the UE to log the failed random-access related information.
  • RACH Random Access Channel
  • the UE shall:
  • SIB1 contain at least one required SIB and for which si-BroadcastStatus is set to notBroadcasting;
  • 25 stored SIB1 contain at least one requested posSIB and for which posSI-BroadcastStatus is set to broadcasting;
  • RequestProhibitTimer 4> acquire the requested SI message(s) corresponding to the requested posSIB(s) as defined in sub-clause 5.2.2.32.
  • UE may include on demand request for SIB and/or posSIB(s) in the same DedicatedSIBRequest message.
  • the UE shall submit the DedicatedSIBRequest message to lower layers for
  • An object of embodiments herein is e.g., to improve the performance of a wireless communications network using QoE.
  • the object is achieved by a method performed by a wireless
  • the method is for handling Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network.
  • QoE Quality of Experience
  • the QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal.
  • the wireless terminal logs indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
  • the wireless terminal sends the logged indications to a network node.
  • the logged indications enable a network node to adapt any system information configuration.
  • the object is achieved by a method performed by a network node.
  • the method is for handling Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network.
  • the QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal.
  • the network node receives indications from the wireless terminal.
  • the indications are logged by the wireless terminal.
  • the logged indications indicate a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
  • the network node adapts any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal.
  • the object is achieved by a wireless terminal, configured to handle Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network.
  • QoE Quality of Experience
  • the QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal.
  • the wireless terminal is further configured to:
  • the logged indications which logged indications are adapted to enable a network node to adapt any system information configuration.
  • the object is achieved by a network node configured to
  • the QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal.
  • the network node is further configured to:
  • Embodiments herein enable the wireless terminal to send the indications concerning requested system information and e.g., an impact of the absence of the system information or the delay in acquisition of the system information on the services running at the application layer of the wireless terminal. This enables a network node to e.g., adapt
  • an OAM or any third-party application analyzing QoE reports may pinpoint any glitch caused by the absence of the system information on the quality of experience. This would avoid any wrong and/or misleading inference when analyzing the QoE report.
  • Figure 1 is a sequence diagram depicting prior art.
  • Figure 2 is a sequence diagram depicting prior art.
  • Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram depicting embodiments of a wireless communications network.
  • Figure 4 is a flow chart depicting embodiments of a method in a wireless terminal
  • Figure 5 is a flow chart depicting embodiments of a method in a network node.
  • Figure 6 is a sequence diagram depicting embodiments of a method.
  • Figures 7 a and b are schematic block diagrams depicting embodiments of a wireless terminal.
  • Figures 8 a and b are schematic block diagrams depicting embodiments of a network node.
  • Figure 9 schematically illustrates a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer.
  • Figure 10 is a generalized block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection.
  • FIGS. 11 to 14 are flowcharts illustrating methods implemented in a communication
  • SIB2, SIB3, etc. may be per user request, i.e. , on demand, when the network does not broadcast them periodically.
  • Some applications for critical operations may require reading some of the system information from other SI type that may not be broadcasted periodically.
  • time critical applications that require over-the-air time synchronization shall read the universal time 10 from the network node and for this purpose the user equipment shall perform on-demand SI request and after successful request it shall perform the acquisition of the requested SI.
  • an object of embodiments herein is e.g., to improve the performance of a wireless communications network using QoE.
  • embodiments herein enable a wireless terminal to send the indications concerning requested system information and e.g., an impact of the absence of the system information or the delay in acquisition of the system information on the services running at the application layer of the wireless terminal.
  • This enables a network node to e.g., adapt any SI configuration.
  • an OAM or any third-party application analyzing QoE reports may pinpoint any glitch caused by the absence of the system information on the quality of experience. This would avoid any wrong/misleading inference when analyzing the QoE report.
  • Figure 3 is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communications network
  • the wireless communications network 100 comprises one or more RANs and one or more CNs.
  • the wireless communications network 100 may use 5G NR but may further use a number of other
  • Wi-Fi Wireless Fidelity
  • LTE Long Term Evolution
  • LTE-Advanced Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
  • GSM/EDGE Global System for Mobile communications/enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution
  • UMB Ultra Mobile Broadband
  • Network nodes such as a network node 110 operate in the wireless
  • the network node 110 may e.g., provide a number of cells and may use these cells for communicating with e.g., a wireless terminal 120.
  • the network node 110 may respectively be a transmission and reception point e.g., a radio access network node such as a base station, e.g., a radio base station such as a NodeB, an evolved Node B (eNB, eNodeB, eNode B), an NR Node B (gNB), a base transceiver 10 station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point, an Access Point Station (AP STA), an access controller, a UE acting as an access point or a peer in a Device to Device (D2D) communication, or any other network unit capable of communicating with a wireless
  • a radio access network node such as a base station, e
  • the network node 110 15 terminal served by the network node 110, depending e.g., on the radio access technology and terminology used.
  • Wireless terminals operate in the wireless communications network 100, such as a wireless terminal 120.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may be configured to communicate with the network node 110.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may be used by a user, such as an 20 end-user.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may be referred to as an end-user.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may e.g., be an NR device, a mobile station, a wireless terminal, an NB-loT device, an eMTC device, an NR RedCap device, a CAT-M device, a Wi-Fi device, an LTE device and a non-access point (non-AP) STA, a STA, that communicates via a base station such as e.g., the network node 110, one or more Access 25 Networks (AN), e.g., RAN, to one or more core networks (CN).
  • a base station such as e.g., the network node 110, one or more Access 25 Networks (AN), e.g., RAN, to one or more core networks (CN).
  • AN Access 25 Networks
  • CN core networks
  • wireless terminal as used herein relates to a non-limiting term which means any UE, terminal, wireless communication terminal, user equipment, (D2D) terminal, or node e.g., smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station communicating within a cell.
  • D2D user equipment
  • Methods herein may in some aspects be performed by the network node 110 and the wireless terminal 120.
  • a Distributed Node (DN) and functionality e.g., comprised in a cloud 140 as shown in Figure 3, may be used for performing or partly performing the methods.
  • An example method according to embodiments herein provides a mechanism for the wireless terminal 120, to measure the impact of a system information, such as SI, request acquisition on the QoE for services running at the application layer of the wireless terminal 120.
  • the method enables the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, to log any one or more out of:
  • an indication indicating the delay in acquisition of on-demand SI message e.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand SI to the time of reception of the on-demand SI message
  • an indication indicating whether the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand SI has(have) been requested
  • the indication measures elapsed time between the time of receiving paging signal to the time of receiving system information related to that service
  • an indication of a delay from the wireless terminal’s 120 such as its application layer’s, transfer, across an API towards the UE AS of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information e.g., relating to the SI, until the application layer receives the requested piece(s) of information from the UE AS.
  • This may include different cases (and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a
  • the application layer requests multiple pieces of information, e.g., relating to the SI, this may result that more than one of the above cases apply, e.g.,
  • one piece of information may be received from a periodically broadcast system information message, while another piece of information has to be acquired through on-demand system information request.
  • the UE AS has to acquired two requested pieces of information through on- demand requests of two Sl-messages, wherein the two pieces of information
  • the UE AS may also transfer the requested pieces of information to the application layer at different times.
  • the application layer may log (as QoE data) indications of the delay between request and delivery for each delivered part,
  • the application layer may only log (as QoE data) a single delay indication representing the delay from the request to the delivery of the last part of the requested information.
  • the UE AS may indicate to the application layer which method the UE AS has used to acquire the requested information and the application
  • 20 layer may log this together with, or as part of, the QoE data.
  • a timestamp (or other time indication) indicating when an on-demand system information request (or other means of acquisition of information) occurred.
  • Embodiments herein e.g., provide methods performed by the wireless terminal 120, e.g., by the access stratum or by the applications on the device, such as the wireless terminal 120, to log indications concerning a request for a system information and its impact on the quality of experience for the provided service at the application layer.
  • Figure 4 shows an example method performed by the wireless terminal 120, e.g., by an access stratum or by the applications on the terminal 120, e.g., for handling QoE in the wireless communications network 100.
  • the QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal 120.
  • Such service may e.g., be streaming, 35 MTSI, VR, and/or XR.
  • the method may comprise any one or more out of the actions below.
  • Optional actions are referred to as dashed boxes in Figure 4. The following actions may be performed in any suitable order.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may in some embodiments receive a QoE configuration from the network node 110.
  • the QoE configuration configures the wireless terminal 120 to perform QoE related measurements.
  • the configuration may further configure the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, to log indications related to system information.
  • the indications related to system information may also be referred to as information related to 10 system information herein.
  • To log indications when used herein e.g., means to store information when certain events occur.
  • the wireless terminal 120 logs indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, e.g., according to the QoE configuration. This may be performed as mentioned in below actions 402, 403, 15 and in some embodiment action 404. This is e.g., to enable the wireless terminal 120 to measure the impact of system information, such as SI, request acquisition on the QoE for the services running at the application layer.
  • system information such as SI
  • the wireless terminal 120 logs a first indication. This may e.g., be performed by an application layer of the application on the wireless terminal 120.
  • the first indication may e.g., be logged at the time of sending a request for system information (SI) to the network, such as the network node 110.
  • SI system information
  • the first indication indicates a requested system information, e.g., that system information is requested, and in some embodiments,
  • This logging is according to the QoE configuration.
  • the wireless terminal 120 logs a second indication e.g., by 30 an Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120.
  • An AS of the wireless terminal 120 e.g., means managing the radio resources and the radio related signalling such as e g. RRC (Radio Resource Control) signalling.
  • the second indication indicates an impact of the requested system information on the QoE for the provided service at the application. This logging is according to the QoE configuration. Examples of impacts of the requested system information on the QoE for the provided service at the application, may e.g., comprise measuring delays from receiving information in system information until processed and actions taken in the application in the wireless terminal 120.
  • the wireless terminal 120 logs a third indication.
  • the third indication may indicate a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration.
  • the third indication may be logged to indicate an impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
  • the third indication is logged to indicate and/or comprise, any one or more out of:
  • RRC Radio Resource Control
  • an indication indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for
  • an indication of a delay from the application layer transfers, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of
  • a timestamp or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred. This may e.g., be referred to as a time indication such as e.g., a timestamp. wherein the third indication is comprised in the logged indications to be sent to the network node 110.
  • the wireless terminal 120 indicates, by a UE AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal 120, a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system information. Indicating the method may thereby e.g., enable the application layer to log the method together with, or as part of the QoE data.
  • the wireless terminal 120 sends a report to the network node 110.
  • the report may relate to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the 15 service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration.
  • the measured QoE may be impacted according to the logged indications.
  • the wireless terminal 120 then sends the logged indications to the network node 110.
  • the logged indications e.g., enable a network node, such as the network node 110, to adapt any system information configuration.
  • Figure 5 shows an example method performed by the network node 110 e.g., for handling QoE in the wireless communications network 100.
  • the QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal 120.
  • the method may comprise any one or more out of the actions below.
  • Optional actions are referred to as dashed 30 boxes in Figure 4. The following actions may be performed in any suitable order.
  • the network node 110 may in some optional embodiments send a QoE configuration to the wireless terminal 120.
  • the QoE configuration may e.g., configure the wireless terminal 120 to perform QoE related measurements and/or e.g., to log indications related to system information.
  • the network node 110 receives indications from the wireless terminal 120.
  • the indications have been logged by the wireless terminal 120 e.g., according to the QoE configuration.
  • the logged indications may indicate a requested system information and its impact on a QoE for the provided service at the application.
  • the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 10 according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of:
  • a first indication indicating a request for system information and, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
  • the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 15 according to the QoE configuration further comprises a third indication.
  • the third indication indicates and/or comprising any one or more out of:
  • An indication indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, e.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request for on-demand system information to the time of reception of the
  • an indication indicating a state of a UE AS of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a RAN, requests for on-demand system information related to the requested system information
  • an indication indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has/have been requested and the request for an on-demand system information
  • an indication of a delay from the application layer transfers, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request, and - a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred. This may e.g., be referred to as a time indication such as e.g., a timestamp
  • the network node 110 adapts any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal 120.
  • the network node 110 may use the received indications for other thing, as will be described below.
  • the network node 110 receives a report from the wireless terminal 120.
  • the report may in these embodiments relate to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application.
  • the QoE may be 15 measured according to the sent QoE configuration.
  • the measured QoE is impacted according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal 120.
  • UE RRC configuration UE RRC context
  • RRC configuration UE RRC context
  • RRC configuration UE RRC context
  • RRC context UE RRC context
  • QoE measurement configuration QoE measurement and reporting configuration
  • QoE configuration QoE configuration
  • QoE measurement also may refer to a measurement or data collection performed for the purpose of determining one or more QoE metric(s).
  • Session Start indication “Session Start indication”, “Recording Session Indication”, and in 35 some cases “indication” are to a large extent used interchangeably.
  • the Session Start Indication is used as an example and the embodiments herein may be applied to any indication that a UE access stratum may receive from upper layer/applications.
  • MCE QoE Collector Entity
  • pause (such as in “pause indication”) is often used herein as equivalent to “pause QoE measurement reporting”.
  • resume (such as in “resume indication”) is often used herein as equivalent to “resume QoE measurement
  • a network node may be a RAN node, a gNB, eNB, en-gNB, ng-eNB, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU-UP, gNB-DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-CU-UP, eNB-DU, IAB- nodes, lAB-donors, lAB-donor-CU, lAB-donor-CU-CP, lAB-donor-CU-UP, lAB-donor-DU, IAB-MT, O-CU, O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP, O-DU, O-RU, O-eNB, a Core Network node, an
  • FIG. 6 The flowchart for the wireless terminal 120, actions upon a need for system information is shown in Figure 6.
  • Figure 6 it is illustrated an example of the wireless terminal actions when performed by the wireless terminal 120 UE Access Stratum and the application(s) in the wireless terminal 120 upon on-demand system information (SI) request according to some example embodiments.
  • SI system information
  • the network node 110 sends a QoE configuration, e.g., a list of QoE configuration(s) to the UE Access Stratum.
  • a QoE configuration e.g., a list of QoE configuration(s)
  • the network node 110 may send QoE configurations to the UE Access Stratum in subsequent independent messages.
  • the configuration may indicate to the UE Access Stratum, such as the wireless terminal 120:
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum sends the QoE configuration(s) to its upper layers (in particular the application layer) and configures itself to report the upcoming QoE measurement results to the network such as the network
  • the upper layers at the wireless terminal 120 (e.g., application layer) sends a request to the UE Access Stratum of the wireless terminal 120 indicating a need for a system information (e.g., coordinated universal time, GPS related information, service-
  • a system information e.g., coordinated universal time, GPS related information, service-
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum performs the On- demand SI request if the requested system information is not broadcasted by the network, such as the network node 110.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum acquires the system information. Note that in some embodiments this procedure may fail, and the wireless terminal 120, may not successfully acquire the requested system information.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum logs indications related to the requested SI message, also referred to as first indications, and sends the system information or parts of the system information to its upper layers (e.g., the application layer). This relates to and may combined with Action 402 described above.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its upper layer (e.g., application layer requesting for the system information) logs indications concerning the requested system information, also referred to as second indications.
  • This may (e.g., be a list of the required system information item(s), e.g., SIB(s), as well as optionally the impact of the absence of system information on the provided service). This relates to and may combined with
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its upper layer (e.g., application requesting for the system information) sends the indications concerning the requested system information to the UE Access Stratum of the wireless terminal 120, e.g., in 5 conjunction with (i.e. together with) a QoE report, or as a part of a QoE report.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its upper layer (e.g., application requesting for the system information) sends the indications concerning the requested system information to the UE Access Stratum of the wireless terminal 120, e.g., in 5 conjunction with (i.e. together with) a QoE report, or as a part of a QoE report.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum collects the information concerning the SI request received from upper layers, also referred to as first indications, and the impact of the requested system information on the quality of
  • the 10 experience of the upper layer services, also referred to as the logged second indications, and sends the indications, e.g., as a report, to the network such as the network node 110.
  • the UE Access Stratum received from the upper layers, such as the first indications, (e.g., together with or as a part of a QoE report) the UE Access Stratum also sends the SI related information it has logged itself.
  • the network node 110 may use the received indications to optimize the system information configuration.
  • the RAN node may send this information to other RAN node(s) (which for example may be RAN node(s) in whose cell(s) some of the 20 information received from the upper layers has been collected or to the OAM system.
  • this(these) other RAN node(s) and/or the OAM system may use the information to optimize/improve the system information configuration in the concerned cell(s). This relates to and may combined with Action 503 described above.
  • the configuration including the indication related to logging system 25 information related information may be received by the network node 110, from an external entity or a logical node e.g., OAM or SMO.
  • Information and indications to be logged by the wireless terminal 120 e.g., by 30 either the access stratum or by the upper layers, e.g., applications, and e.g., at the time of request for system information (SI).
  • SI system information
  • the radio layers in the wireless terminal 120 e.g., the Access Stratum (AS) layers in the wireless terminal 120, operating according to the 3GPP NR or LTE standard, or the application layer in the wireless terminal 120, upon request for the system information (in a non-limiting example, coordinated universal time) may
  • AS Access Stratum
  • the system information in a non-limiting example, coordinated universal time
  • the application layer may be unaware of that the information it requests, e.g., from the UE Access Stratum is provided by the network, such as the network node 110, in the form of system information, i.e. the application layer may only know that it may request the information from the UE Access Stratum, but may not know how the UE Access Stratum gets it).
  • the wireless terminal 120 logs (and in most cases later reports to the network such as the network node 110 the one or more of the following information.
  • AS access stratum
  • the wireless terminal 120 logs (and in most cases later reports to the network such as the network node 110 the one or more of the following information.
  • This relates to and may combined with any one or more of the Actions 402, 403, and/or 404 described above.
  • the indications relate to any of the first, second and/or third indications as
  • An indication indicating the number of requested system information items, e.g., SIB(s), Sl-message(s) and/or parameters or information elements.
  • An indication indicating the list of the requested system information items, e.g.,
  • SIB(s), Sl-message(s) and/or parameters or information elements are 20 SIB(s), Sl-message(s) and/or parameters or information elements.
  • An indication indicating the number of requests (e.g., number of subsequent requests) to obtain a specific on-demand system information item, e.g., Sl-message or SIB,
  • system information items e.g., Sl-message(s), SIB(s), parameters or information elements,
  • An indication indicating one or more obtained on-demand system information item(s), e.g., Sl-message(s), SIB(s), parameter(s) and/or information element(s).
  • An indication indicating the RRC state of the UE AS when sending to RAN such as the network node 110 request(s) for on-demand SI.
  • Indication(s) indicating service type(s) and/or upper layer information for which request(s) for on-demand Sl(s) has(have) been sent from the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS or for which on-demand SI has been received by the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS.
  • service subtype application identity, app version, app vendor.
  • Indication(s) indicating the timestamp(s) of the end of the system information request at the wireless terminal 120, such as its application or at the UE AS. For instance, such a timestamp may indicate the time of reception of the requested system information.
  • a paging e.g., a CN initiated paging or a RAN initiated paging
  • a paging e.g., a CN initiated paging or a RAN initiated paging
  • a paging e.g., a CN paging or a RAN paging
  • this may be applicable for obtained
  • the change of cell may e.g., be due to handover, cell selection, cell reselection, reestablishment or resume.
  • DC dual connectivity
  • the wireless terminal 120 has been configured with CA/DC when previously not, before requesting or after requesting and receiving on-demand SI.
  • 35 demand SI e.g., just before or immediately after requesting on-demand SI
  • an indication of a delay e.g., in number of radio frames, slots, milliseconds, or equivalent, or any other time unit
  • An indication indicating a delay (e.g., in number of radio frames, milliseconds, or 5 equivalent, or any other time unit) from the acquisition of the requested on-demand SI until user data payload is transmitted in the uplink or received in the downlink, e.g., until the radio frame or slot carrying user data payload in either downlink or uplink or both.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS may have obtained such information from a first RAN node such as the network node
  • Such information may have been originated from a second RAN node in a second
  • the wireless terminal 120 via one or more Core Network nodes and the first RAN node (e.g., using a mechanism like a RIM (RAN Information Management) function).
  • RIM RAN Information Management
  • wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS performs SI acquisition (e.g., requesting and receiving on-demand SI) and sends to the application. It may also be configured in RRC signalling whether the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS should measure the SI acquisition time (e.g., in terms of a timestamp or a delay indication), e.g., based on explicit indication or implicitly
  • An indication indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS, upon request from an upper layer, e.g., the application layer, to provide information comprised in on-demand SI (i.e. in one or more on-demand Sl-message(s) or SIB(s)), did request such information from the network such as the network node 110 with condition(s) 35 that the same information was not already available at the UE AS or, if it was stored/available in the past, is now outdated or about to become outdated (e.g., a timer controlling a refresh of the information has expired).
  • an upper layer e.g., the application layer
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS logs information related to the broadcast/request- response status of (each of) the system information item(s) requested by the application.
  • Such an indication may be implicit (e.g., inclusion of an indicator whether msg1/msg3
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS received from a first RAN node such as the network node 110, the QoE configuration such as a first QoE configuration (or a first list of QoE configurations) to collect and report QoE measurements for a first application (or for a first list of applications, e.g., in terms of 30 service type(s)), and upon request from at least one application associated with the first QoE configuration, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS has sent a first request to the network, such as the network node 110 e.g., a first RAN node, and obtained information comprised in at least one on-demand Sl-message.
  • the network node 110 e.g., a first RAN node
  • the said information is to be used by the at least one application associated to the first QoE configuration (or to the 35 first list of QoE configurations).
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS may subsequently receive from the first RAN node such as the network node 110 or a second RAN node a second QoE configuration (or a second list of QoE configurations) to collect and report QoE measurements for a second application (or for a second list of applications, e.g., in terms of service type(s)).
  • At least one of the applications for which 5 the second QoE configuration (or the second list of QoE configurations) applies may request the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS to obtain information comprised at least in part in the already acquired on-demand SI.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS may:
  • the UE AS may send the newly received information to the at least one application associated with the first QoE configuration (or the first list of QoE configurations) in order to replace the previously sent information with the new, possibly updated, information.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may transmit the already available information to at least one application associated to the second QoE configuration (or second list of QoE configurations) and optionally retransmit it to the at least one application associated to the first QoE configuration (or first list of QoE configurations).
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS may combine information obtained via a first request for on-demand SI with information obtained via a second (third, fourth%) request for on-demand SI and send to the upper layer, e.g., the application layer, information, e.g., comprising a set of information items, comprising at least part of the information
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS, e.g., the UE RRC layer, may send request(s) to a RAN node such as the network node 110 for
  • upper layers e.g., from the application layer
  • various parameters e.g., specifying: a maximum number of requests for on-demand SI transmitted in a certain time interval (for any on-demand SI or for a specific on-demand Sl-message), request(s) for a maximum number of on-demand Sl-messages during a certain time interval, a minimum time
  • a first RAN node such as the network node 110 may send to the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS, as part of, or together with a QoE configuration, or together with or as part of a RAN Visible QoE configuration, an indication indicating whether information comprised in on-demand SI would be available or not, 20 and/or an indication indicating that information comprised in on-demand SI needed for at least one service type (or application) may be requested by the wireless terminal 120, to a specific carrier frequency.
  • a first RAN node such as the network node 110 may receive 25 a QoE configuration or a list of QoE configurations from a second RAN node or from a third network node (e.g., a CN node, an OAM node, an SMO node), and derive from at least one of attributes of QoE configuration (e.g., a service type) that at least one on- demand SI item is required to perform at least part of the QoE measurements for which QoE configuration is received.
  • the first RAN node such as the network node 110 may 30 then preschedule and/or broadcast the otherwise on-demand SI in advance, i.e. before receiving corresponding request from the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS.
  • the RAN node such as the network node 110 may - at least temporarily - change the broadcast status of the concerned Sl-message from “notBroadcasting” (i.e. available on-demand) to “broadcasting”.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS logs information about performed on-demand SI requests (and possibly also logs information about other information acquisition events, such as acquisition of periodically broadcast system information) and associates this logged information with a certain application 5 session, based on received session start and session stop indications from the application layer.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS may receive from the application layer a session starts indication and later a request for certain information (which may trigger the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS to perform an on-demand system information request), and later also a session stop indication (which may have the 10 form of a QoE report).
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS may then associate the logged information (e.g., a logged indication of a performed on-demand SI request) with the concerned application session, and when the UE AS receives a QoE report from the application layer for this session (where the QoE report may constitute an implicit session stop indication), the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS sends the logged 15 information together with the QoE report to the network such as the network node 110.
  • the logged information e.g., a logged indication of a performed on-demand SI request
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE AS sends the logged 15 information together with the QoE report to the network such as the network node 110.
  • the network such as the network node 110 configures the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum to log (and later report) information related to on-demand SI acquisitions it performs (and optionally also acquisitions of 20 periodically broadcast SI), when the SI acquisition is triggered by a request from upper layers, e.g., the application layer.
  • the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum to log (and later report) information related to on-demand SI acquisitions it performs (and optionally also acquisitions of 20 periodically broadcast SI
  • the a wireless terminal 120 When the a wireless terminal 120, such as its application layer logs and reports (e.g., in the QoE report) information about requests for information, it sends to the UE 25 Access Stratum, and the UE Access Stratum logs and reports information related to SI acquisition, e.g., on-demand acquisition of one or more Sl-message(s) (optionally only SI acquisition triggered by requests from the application layer), the network, e.g., the RAN or the O&M system, may correlate this information (i.e.
  • the information request related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120 includes indication(s) or description(s) of the requested information.
  • the SI acquisition related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum includes information about the acquired Sl-message(s).
  • the SI acquisition related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum includes indication(s) about the SIB(s) and/or parameters or information elements the wireless terminal 120, was interested in (as per the request from the application layer) in the acquired Sl-message(s).
  • the SI acquisition related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum includes information about the acquired Sl-message(s) as well as indication(s) about the SIB(s) the wireless terminal 120, was interested in (as per the request from the application layer) in the acquired Sl- message(s).
  • Figures 7a and 7b show examples of an arrangement in the wireless terminal 120.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may comprise an input and output interface 700 configured to communicate e.g., with any of the networking entities operating in the
  • the input and output interface 700 may comprise a receiver, e.g., wired and/or wireless, (not shown) and a transmitter, e.g., wired and/or wireless, (not shown).
  • the wireless terminal 120 may comprise any one or more out of: a receiving unit
  • the embodiments herein may be implemented through a respective processor or one or more processors, such as at least one processor 760 of a processing circuitry in
  • the program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the wireless terminal 120.
  • a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the wireless terminal 120.
  • the computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the wireless terminal 120.
  • the wireless terminal 120 may further comprise a memory 770 comprising one or
  • the memory 770 comprises instructions executable by the processor in the wireless terminal 120.
  • the memory 770 is arranged to be used to store instructions, data, configurations, measurements, and applications to perform the methods herein when being executed in the wireless terminal 120.
  • a computer program 780 comprises instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor 760, cause the at least one processor 760 of the wireless terminal 120 to perform the actions above.
  • a respective carrier 790 comprises the respective computer
  • the carrier 790 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
  • wireless terminal 120 may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., stored in the wireless terminal 120, that when executed by the respective one or more processors such as the at least one processor 760 described above cause the respective at least one processor 760 to perform actions according to any of the actions above.
  • processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., stored in the wireless terminal 120, that when executed by the respective one or more processors such as the at least one processor 760 described above cause the respective at least one processor 760 to perform actions according to any of the actions above.
  • processors may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a system-on-a-chip (SoC).
  • ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry
  • SoC system-on-a-chip
  • the network node 110 may comprise an input and output interface 800 configured to communicate e.g., with any of the networking entities operating in the wireless communications network 100 of embodiments herein, such as e.g., the wireless terminal 120.
  • the input and output interface 800 may comprise a receiver, e.g., wired
  • the network node 110 may comprise any one or more out of: an adapting unit 810, a sending unit 820, and a receiving unit 830 to perform the method actions as described herein, e.g., actions 501-504 above.
  • the embodiments herein may be implemented through a respective processor or one or more processors, such as at least one processor 860 of a processing circuitry in the network node 110 depicted in Figure 8a, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein.
  • the program code may be implemented through a respective processor or one or more processors, such as at least one processor 860 of a processing circuitry in the network node 110 depicted in Figure 8a, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein.
  • the program code may be implemented through a respective processor or one or more processors, such as at least one processor 860 of a processing circuitry in the network node 110 depicted in Figure 8a, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein.
  • the computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program
  • the network node 110 may further comprise a memory 870 comprising one or more memory units.
  • the memory 870 comprises instructions executable by the processor in the network node 110.
  • the memory 870 is arranged to be used to store instructions,
  • a computer program 880 comprises instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor 860, cause the at least one processor 860 of
  • a respective carrier 890 comprises the respective computer program 880, wherein the carrier 890 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave
  • the functional modules in the network node 110 may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., 5 stored in the network node 110, that when executed by the respective one or more processors such as the at least one processor 860 described above cause the respective at least one processor 860 to perform actions according to any of the actions above.
  • processors as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry (ASIC), or several processors and various 10 digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a system-on-a-chip (SoC).
  • ASIC Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry
  • SoC system-on-a-chip
  • Embodiment 1 A method performed by a wireless terminal 120, e.g., by an access stratum or by the applications on the terminal 120, e.g., for handling Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal 120, the method e.g., 25 comprising any one or more out of:
  • a QoE configuration e.g., comprising to perform QoE related measurements and e.g., to log indications related to system information
  • Embodiment 2 The method according to Embodiment 1, further comprising: sending to the network node 110, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration, which measured QoE is impacted according to the logged indications.
  • Embodiment 3 The method according to any of the Embodiments 1-2, wherein the logging 402, 403 of the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of:
  • Embodiment 4 The method according to any of the Embodiments 1-3, wherein the logging of the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration further comprises:
  • an indication indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the on-demand system information message
  • RRC Radio Resource Control
  • AS Radio Access Stratum
  • a timestamp, or other time indication indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred, and wherein the third indication is comprised in the logged indications to be sent to the network node 110.
  • Embodiment 5 The method according to any of the Embodiments 1-4, the method further comprising: indicating 405 by a UE Access Stratum, AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal 120 a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system
  • Embodiment 6 A computer program 780 comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor 760, causes the processor 760 to perform actions according to 20 any of the Embodiments 1-5.
  • Embodiment 7 A carrier 790 comprising the computer program 780 of
  • Embodiment 6 wherein the carrier 790 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave 25 signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
  • Embodiment 8 A method performed by a network node 110 e.g., for handling Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal 120, the method
  • a QoE configuration e.g., comprising to perform QoE related measurements and e.g., to log indications related to system information
  • receiving 502 from the wireless terminal 120, indications logged by the wireless 35 terminal 120 e.g., according to the QoE configuration, which logged indications indicate a requested system information and its impact on an QoE for the provided service at the application, adapting 503 any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal 120.
  • Embodiment 9 The method according to Embodiment 8, further comprising: receiving 504 from the wireless terminal 120, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application, which QoE is measured according to the sent QoE configuration, and which measured QoE is impacted 10 according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal 120.
  • Embodiment 10 The method according to any of the Embodiments 8-9, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of:
  • Embodiment 11 The method according to any of the Embodiments 8-10, 20 wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration further comprises a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
  • an indication indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the
  • RRC Radio Resource Control
  • AS Radio Access Stratum
  • an indication of a delay from the application layer transfers, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may
  • - a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred.
  • a computer program 880 comprising instructions, which when
  • processor 860 executed by a processor 860, causes the processor 860 to perform actions according to any of the Embodiments 8-11.
  • a carrier 890 comprising the computer program 880 of Embodiment 12, wherein the carrier 890 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, 15 an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
  • a wireless terminal 120 e.g., comprising an access stratum on the terminal 120 and an application on the terminal 120, configured to e.g., handle Quality 20 of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal 120
  • the wireless terminal 120 is e.g., further configured to any one or more out of: receive, e.g., by means of a receiving unit 710 in the wireless terminal 120, from a network node 110, a QoE configuration, e.g., comprising to perform QoE related 25 measurements and e.g., to log indications related to system information, log, e.g., by means of a logging unit 720 in the wireless terminal 120, indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, e.g., according to the QoE configuration, send, e.g., by means of a sending unit 730 in
  • Embodiment 15 The wireless terminal 120 according to Embodiment 14, further configured to: send, e.g., by means of the sending unit730 in the wireless terminal 120, to the network node 110, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration, which measured QoE is adapted to be impacted according to the logged indications.
  • Embodiment 16 The wireless terminal 120 according to any of the Embodiments 14-15, further configured to log, e.g., by means of the logging unit 720 in the wireless terminal 120, the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE 10 configuration by any one or more out of: logging, e.g., by an application layer of the application on the wireless terminal 120, a first indication indicating a request for system information and logging, e.g., by an Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for 15 the provided service at the application.
  • logging e.g., by an application layer of the application on the wireless terminal 120
  • a first indication indicating a request for system information and logging e.g., by an Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120
  • a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on
  • Embodiment 17 The wireless terminal 120 according to any of the Embodiments 14-16, further configured to log, e.g., by means of the logging unit 720 in the wireless terminal 120, the indication indicating the requested system information and
  • RRC Radio Resource Control
  • AS Radio Access Stratum
  • an indication indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested, - an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
  • an indication of a delay from the application layer transfers, across an API towards 5 the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
  • the third indication is comprised in the logged indications to be sent to the network node 110.
  • Embodiment 18 The wireless terminal 120 according to any of the
  • Embodiments 14-17 further configured to: indicate, e.g., by means of an indicating unit 740 in the wireless terminal 120, by a UE Access Stratum, AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal 120 a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system information, thereby e.g., enabling the application layer to log the method together with or as part of the QoE data.
  • a UE Access Stratum AS
  • a network node 110 e.g., configured to handle Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal 120, the network node 110 e.g., is further configured to any one or more out of:
  • send e.g., by means of a sending unit 820 in the network node 110, to the wireless terminal 120, a QoE configuration
  • receive e.g., by means of a receiving unit 830 in the network node 110, from the wireless terminal 120, indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 e.g., according to
  • the QoE configuration which logged indications are adapted to indicate a requested system information and its impact on an QoE for the provided service at the application, adapt, e.g., by means of an adapting unit 810 in the network node 110, any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal 120.
  • the network node 110 according to Embodiment 19, further configured to: receive, e.g., by means of the receiving unit 830 in the network node 110, from the wireless terminal 120, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120
  • Embodiment 21 The network node 110 according to any of the Embodiments
  • the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration are adapted to comprise any one or more out of: a first indication indicating a request for system information and, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
  • Embodiment 22 The network node 110 according to any of the Embodiments 19-21, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration are adapted to further comprise a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
  • an indication indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the on-demand system information message
  • RRC Radio Resource Control
  • an indication indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested and the request for an on-demand system information
  • an indication of a delay from the application layer transfers, across an API towards 35 the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
  • a communication system includes a telecommunication network 3210 such as the wireless communication 30 network 100, e.g., an loT network, or a WLAN, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises an access network 3211 , such as a radio access network, and a core network 3214.
  • the access network 3211 comprises a plurality of base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c, such as the network node 110, access nodes, AP STAs NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area 35 3213a, 3213b, 3213c.
  • Each base station 3212a, 3212b, 3212c is connectable to the core network 3214 over a wired or wireless connection 3215.
  • a first UE e.g., the wireless terminal 120, such as a Non-AP STA 3291 located in coverage area 3213c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 3212c.
  • a second UE 3292 e.g., the wireless terminal 120, such as a Non-AP STA in coverage area 3213a 5 is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 3212a. While a plurality of UEs 3291, 3292 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base station 3212.
  • the telecommunication network 3210 is itself connected to a host computer 3230, 10 which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud- implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm.
  • the host computer 3230 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.
  • the connections 3221, 3222 between the telecommunication network 3210 and the host computer 3230 15 may extend directly from the core network 3214 to the host computer 3230 or may go via an optional intermediate network 3220.
  • the intermediate network 3220 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; the intermediate network 3220, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 3220 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).
  • the communication system of Figure 9 as a whole enables connectivity between one of the connected UEs 3291 , 3292 and the host computer 3230.
  • the connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 3250.
  • the host computer 3230 and the connected UEs 3291, 3292 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via the OTT connection 3250, using the access network 3211, the core network 3214, any 25 intermediate network 3220 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries.
  • the OTT connection 3250 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 3250 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications.
  • a base station 3212 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink 30 communication with data originating from a host computer 3230 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE 3291. Similarly, the base station 3212 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 3291 towards the host computer 3230.
  • a host computer 3310 comprises hardware 3315 including a communication interface 3316 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300.
  • the host computer 3310 further comprises
  • processing circuitry 3318 which may have storage and/or processing capabilities.
  • the processing circuitry 3318 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.
  • the host computer 3310 further comprises software 3311, which is stored in or accessible by the host
  • the software 3311 includes a host application 3312.
  • the host application 3312 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a UE 3330 connecting via an OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the remote user, the host application 3312 may provide user data which is transmitted using
  • the communication system 3300 further includes a base station 3320 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 3325 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 3310 and with the UE 3330.
  • the hardware 3325 may include a communication interface 3326 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless
  • connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300, as well as a radio interface 3327 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 3370 with a UE 3330 located in a coverage area (not shown) served by the base station 3320.
  • the communication interface 3326 may be configured to facilitate a connection 3360 to the host computer 3310.
  • the connection 3360 may be
  • the hardware 3325 of the base station 3320 further includes processing circuitry 3328, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable
  • the base station 3320 further has software 3321 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.
  • the communication system 3300 further includes the UE 3330 already referred to.
  • Its hardware 3335 may include a radio interface 3337 configured to set up and maintain a
  • the hardware 3335 of the UE 3330 further includes processing circuitry 3338, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions.
  • the UE 3330 further comprises software 3331,
  • the software 3331 includes a client application 3332.
  • the client application 3332 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 3330, with the support of the host computer 3310.
  • an executing host application 3312 may communicate with the executing client application 3332 via the OTT
  • connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310.
  • the client application 3332 may receive request data from the host application 3312 and provide user data in response to the request data.
  • the OTT connection 3350 may transfer both the request data and the user data.
  • the client application 3332 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.
  • the host computer 3310, base station 3320 and UE 3330 illustrated in Figure 10 may be identical to the host computer 3230, one of the base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c and one of the UEs 3291, 3292 of Figure 9, respectively.
  • the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Figure 10 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Figure 9.
  • the OTT connection 3350 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host computer 3310 and the use equipment 3330 via the base station 3320, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.
  • Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from the UE 3330 or from the service provider
  • the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network).
  • the wireless connection 3370 between the UE 3330 and the base station 3320 is in
  • One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 3330 using the OTT connection 3350, in which the wireless connection 3370 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the applicable RAN effect: data rate, latency, power consumption, and thereby
  • a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve.
  • the measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 may be implemented in the software 3311 of the host computer 3310 or in the software 3331 of the UE 3330, or both.
  • 10 sensors may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 3350 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software 3311, 3331 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities.
  • the reconfiguring of the OTT 15 connection 3350 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 3320, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 3320. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art.
  • measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating the host computer’s 3310 measurements of 20 throughput, propagation times, latency and the like.
  • the measurements may be implemented in that the software 3311, 3331 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 3350 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.
  • FIG 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication 25 system, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as the network node 110, and a UE such as the wireless terminal 120, which may be those described with reference to Figure 10 and Figure 9. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 11 will be included in this section.
  • the host computer provides user data.
  • the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application.
  • the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE.
  • the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.
  • the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.
  • FIG 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • the communication system includes a host
  • the host computer provides user data.
  • the host computer provides the user data by executing a host
  • a second action 3520 the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE.
  • the transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.
  • the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.
  • Figure 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 9 and Figure 10. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 13 will be included in this section.
  • the UE receives input data provided by the base station.
  • the UE provides user data.
  • the UE provides the user data by executing a client application.
  • the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer.
  • the executed client application may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in an optional third subaction 3630, transmission of the user data to the host computer. In a fourth action 3640 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described
  • FIG 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • the communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 9 and Figure 10.
  • a host computer such as an AP STA
  • a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 9 and Figure 10.
  • the base station receives user data from the UE.
  • the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer.
  • the host computer In a third action 3730, the host computer

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Abstract

A method performed by a wireless terminal is provided. The method is for handling Quality of Experience (QoE) in a wireless communications network. The QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal. The wireless terminal logs (402, 403, 404) indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application. The wireless terminal sends (407) the logged indications to a network node. The logged indications enable a network node to adapt any system information configuration.

Description

WIRELESS TERMINAL, NETWORK NODE AND METHODS IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK
TECHNICAL FIELD
5 Embodiments herein relate to a wireless terminal, a network node, and methods therein. In some aspects, they relate to handling Quality of Experience (QoE) in a wireless communications network.
Embodiments herein further relates to computer programs and carriers corresponding to the above methods, wireless terminal, and network node.
10
BACKGROUND
In a typical wireless communication network, wireless devices, also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, stations (STA) and/or User Equipments (UE)s, communicate via a Wide Area Network or a Local Area Network such as a Wi-Fi 15 network or a cellular network comprising a Radio Access Network (RAN) part and a Core Network (CN) part. The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cell areas, which may also be referred to as a beam or a beam group, with each service area or cell area being served by a radio network node such as a radio access node e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a radio base station (RBS), which in some networks 20 may also be denoted, for example, a NodeB, eNodeB (eNB), or gNB as denoted in Fifth Generation (5G) telecommunications. A service area or cell area is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over an air interface operating on radio frequencies with the wireless device within range of the radio network node.
25 3GPP is the standardization body for specify the standards for the cellular system evolution, e.g., including 3G, 4G, 5G and the future evolutions. Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS), also called a Fourth Generation (4G) network, have been completed within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). As a continued network evolution, the new releases of 3GPP specifies a 5G network also referred to as 5G New 30 Radio (NR).
Frequency bands for 5G NR are being separated into two different frequency ranges, Frequency Range 1 (FR1) and Frequency Range 2 (FR2). FR1 comprises sub-6 GHz frequency bands. Some of these bands are bands traditionally used by legacy standards but have been extended to cover potential new spectrum offerings from 410 MHz to 7125 MHz FR2 comprises frequency bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. Bands in this millimeter wave range have shorter range but higher available bandwidth than bands in the FR1.
5 Multi-antenna techniques may significantly increase the data rates and reliability of a wireless communication system. For a wireless connection between a single user, such as UE, and a base station, the performance is in particular improved if both the transmitter and the receiver are equipped with multiple antennas, which results in a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication channel. This may be referred to as Single-User
10 (SU)-MIMO. In the scenario where MIMO techniques is used for the wireless connection between multiple users and the base station, MIMO enables the users to communicate with the base station simultaneously using the same time-frequency resources by spatially separating the users, which increases further the cell capacity. This may be referred to as Multi-User (MU)-MIMO. Note that MU-MIMO may benefit when each UE only has one
15 antenna. Such systems and/or related techniques are commonly referred to as MIMO.
QoE measurements in legacy solution
QoE measurements have been specified for LTE and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and it is being specified for NR. The purpose of the
20 application layer measurements is to measure the end user experience when using certain applications. Currently QoE measurements for streaming services and for Mobility Telephony Service for IMS (MTSI) services are supported.
The solutions in LTE and UMTS are similar with the overall principles as follows. QoE Measurement Collection enables configuration of application layer measurements in
25 a UE and transmission of QoE measurement result files by means of RRC signaling. Application layer measurement configuration received from Operation and Maintenance (QAM) or CN is encapsulated in a transparent container, which is forwarded to the UE in a downlink RRC message. Application layer measurements received from the UE's higher layer are encapsulated in a transparent container and sent to network in an uplink RRC
30 message. The result container is forwarded to a Trace Collector Entity (TCE).
In 3GPP release 17 a study item for “Study on NR QoE management and optimizations for diverse services” for NR has been carried out. The purpose of the study item was to study solutions for QoE measurements in NR. QoE management in NR will not just collect the experience parameters of streaming services but also consider the typical performance requirements of diverse services, e.g., Augmented Reality (AR) and/or Virtual Reality (VR) and Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communication (URLLC).
The measurements may be initiated towards RAN in management-based manner, i.e. from an Operation and Maintenance (O&M) node in a generic way e.g., for a group of 5 UEs, or they may also be initiated in a signaling-based manner, i.e. initiated from CN to RAN e.g., for a single UE. The configuration of the measurement includes the measurement details, which is encapsulated in a container that is transparent to RAN.
When initiated via the core network, the measurement is started towards a specific UE. For the LTE case, the 'TRACE START' S1 AP message is used, which carries, 10 among others, the details about the measurement configuration the application should collect, in the "Container for application layer measurement configuration” Information Element (IE), transparent to the RAN, and the details to reach the trace collection entity to which the measurements should be sent.
The RAN is not aware of when the streaming session is ongoing in the UE Access
15 Stratum and is also not aware of when the measurements are ongoing. It is an implementation decision when RAN stops the measurements. Typically, it is done when the UE has moved outside the measured area.
One opportunity provided by legacy solution is also to be able to keep the QoE measurement for the whole session, even during handover situation.
20
QoE measurement in E-UTRAN
E-UTRAN - Application layer measurement capabilities
For Evolved UTRAN (E-UTRAN), the UE capability transfer is used to transfer UE radio access capability information from the UE to E-UTRAN.
25
Figure 1 illustrates a UE capability transfer in E-UTRAN.
The UE-EUTRA-Capability IE is used to convey the E-UTRA UE Radio Access Capability Parameters and the Feature Group Indicators for mandatory features to the network.
30 In the response message "UECapabilitylnformation”, the UE can include the "UE- EUTRA-Capability” IE. The “UE-EUTRA-Capability" IE may include the UE-EUTRA- Capability-v1530-1 E which can be used by the UE to indicate whether the UE supports or not QoE Measurement Collection for streaming services and/or MTSI services, as detailed in the "MeasParameters-v1530” enconding below.
Figure imgf000006_0001
5 E-UTRAN - Application layer measurement reporting
The purpose of the “Application layer measurement reporting” procedure described in 3GPP TS 36.331 and shown below is to inform E-UTRAN about application layer measurement report.
Figure 2 illustrates application layer measurement reporting in E-UTRAN.
10
A UE capable of application layer measurement reporting in RRC_CONNECTED may initiate the procedure when configured with application layer measurement, i.e. when measConfigAppLayer has been configured by E-UTRAN.
15 Upon initiating the procedure, the UE shall:
1> if configured with application layer measurement, and SRB4 is configured, and the UE has received application layer measurement report information from upper layers:
2> set the measReportAppLayerContainer in the MeasReportAppLayer
20 message to the value of the application layer measurement report information;
2> set the serviceType in the MeasReportAppLayer message to the type of the application layer measurement report information; 2> submit the MeasReportAppLayer message to lower layers for transmission via SRB4.
E-UTRAN - QoE measurement configuration setup and release - RRC signaling
5 The RRCConnectionReconfiguration message is used to reconfigure the UE to setup or release the UE for Application Layer measurements. This is signaled in the measConfigAppLayer-15 IE within the “OtherConfig” IE.
The setup includes the transparent container measConfigAppLayerContainer which specifies the QoE measurement configuration for the Application of interest and the
10 serviceType IE to indicates the Application (or service) for which the QoE measurements are being configured. Supported services are streaming and MTSL
15
Figure imgf000007_0001
E-UTRAN - QoE measurement reporting - RRC signaling
As specified in 3GPP TS 36.331, the MeasReportAppLayer RRC message is used by the UE to send to the E-UTRAN node the QoE measurement results of an Application 20 (or service). The service for which the report is being sent is indicated in the “serviceType” IE.
Below the details for the MeasReportAppLayer message, sent using Signalling Radio Bearer, SRB4. MeasReportAppLayer message
Figure imgf000008_0002
- ASN1STOP
5
Figure imgf000008_0001
On demand system information acquisition in IDLE mode
On demand system acquisition is specified as part of the 3GPP TS 38.331. System
10 Information Blocks (SIB) may be broadcasted or not broadcasted. In case they are broadcasted si-BroadcastStatus will be set to broadcasting and the periodicity of the broadcasted SIB is provided as part of si-BroadcastStatus. If the system information is not broadcasted there are two methods for the UE to request for the system information of interest.
• MSG1 based system information request
• MSG3 based system information request
5
MSG1 based system information request is in this way that the si-BroadcastStatus for that SIB type will be set to notbroadcasting and the in case if the UE is interested to read at least one SIB it should follow the si-RequestConfig to figure out what RACH resources should be used to inform the network to broadcast the required SIB. However,
10 the si-RequestConfig is an optional field and exists if the RACH resources are configured for the system information request from the UE. If the si-RequestConfig does not exist, or RACH resources are configured for the on demand SI request, then the UE initiates the RRCSystemlnfoRequest (MSG3 based approach) to request the system information of interest from the network (this is shown by underlined text in the following).
15 The aforementioned two approaches (MSG1 and MSG3 based on demand SI request) are shown in the following exceprt of the 3GPP TS 38.331.
Figure imgf000010_0001
SI-RequestConfig information element
Figure imgf000011_0001
Request for on demand system information
5 The UE shall:
1> if SIB1 includes si-Schedulinglnfo containing si-RequestConfigSUL and criteria to select supplementary uplink as defined in 3GPP TS 38.321, clause 5.1.1 is met:
2> trigger the lower layer to initiate the Random Access procedure on supplementary uplink in accordance with 3GPP TS 38.321 using the PRACH preamble(s)
10 and PRACH resource(s) in si-RequestConfigSUL corresponding to the SI message(s) that the UE requires to operate within the cell, and for which si-BroadcastStatus is set to notBroadcasting;
2> if acknowledgement for SI request is received from lower layers:
1 3> acquire the requested SI message(s) as defined in sub-clause 5.2.2.3.2,
15 immediately;
1> else if SIB1 includes si-Schedulinglnfo containing si-Req uestConfig and criteria to select normal uplink as defined in 3GPP TS 38.321, clause 5.1.1 is met:
2> trigger the lower layer to initiate the random access procedure on normal uplink in accordance with 3GPP TS 38.321 using the PRACH preamble(s) and PRACH resource(s) in si-RequestConfig corresponding to the SI message(s) that the UE requires to operate within the cell, and for which si-BroadcastStatus is set to notBroadcasting;
2> if acknowledgement for SI request is received from lower layers:
2 3> acquire the requested SI message(s) as defined in sub-clause 5.2.2.3.2,
5 immediately;
1> else:
2> apply the default L1 parameter values as specified in corresponding physical layer specifications except for the parameters for which values are provided in SIB1;
2> apply the default MAC Cell Group configuration as specified in 3GPP 9.2.2;
10 2> apply the timeAlignmentTimerCommon included in SIB1;
2> apply the CCCH configuration as specified in 3GPP 9.1.1.2;
2> initiate transmission of the RRCSystemlnfoRequest message in accordance with 3GPP 5.2.2.3.4;
2> if acknowledgement for RRCSystemlnfoRequest message is received from
15 lower layers:
3 3> acquire the requested SI message(s) as defined in sub-clause 5.2.2.3.2, immediately,
1> if cell reselection occurs while waiting for the acknowledgment for SI request from lower layers:
20 2> reset MAC;
2> if SI request is based on RRCSystemlnfoRequest message:
4 3> release RLC entity for SRB0.
NOTE: After RACH failure for SI request it is up to UE implementation when to retry the SI request.
25
In both methods for requesting system information, a Random Access Channel (RACH) procedure should be initiated (either based on the configuration provided in MSG1 based method, or a contention-based method for MSG3 based solution). If the Random Access (RA) procedure is successful, a ra-Report will be logged by UE which 30 indicates the RA procedure performance. The content of the RA procedure is shown in the following excerpt of the 3GPP RRC TS 38.331. However, if the UE fails in random access procedure for requesting the system information, there is no action on the UE to log the failed random-access related information.
35
Figure imgf000013_0001
Connected mode on demand SI request:
Acquisition ofSIB(s) or posSIB(s) in RRC CONNECTED
The UE shall:
5 11>> if the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED with an active BWP not configured with common search space with the field searchSpaceOtherSystemlnformation and the UE has not stored a valid version of a SIB, in accordance with sub-clause 5.2.2.2.1 , of one or several required SIB(s), in accordance with sub-clause 5.2.2.1 or if requested by upper layers: 10 2> for the SI message(s) that, according to the si-Schedulinglnfo or posSi- Schedulinglnfo in the stored SIB1, contain at least one required SIB or requested posSIB: 5 3> if onDemandSIB-Request is configured and timer T350 is not running: 4> initiate transmission of the DedicatedSIBRequest message in accordance with 3GPP S.2.2.3.6;
4> start timer T350 with the timer value set to the onDemandSIB-
RequestProhibitTimer,
5 1> else if the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED with an active BWP configured with common search space with the field searchSpaceOtherSystemlnformation and the UE has not stored a valid version of a SIB, in accordance with sub-clause 5.2.2.2.1 , of one or several required SIB(s), in accordance with sub-clause 5.2.2.1 or if requested by upper layers:
10 2> for the SI message(s) that, according to the si-Schedulinglnfo in the stored SIB1, contain at least one required SIB and for which si-BroadcastStatus is set to broadcasting;
6 3> acquire the SI message(s) as defined in sub-clause S.2.2.3.2;
2> for the SI message(s) that, according to the si-Schedulinglnfo in the stored
15 SIB1 , contain at least one required SIB and for which si-BroadcastStatus is set to notBroadcasting;
7 3> if onDemandSIB-Request is configured and timer T350 is not running:
4> initiate transmission of the DedicatedSIBRequest message in accordance with 3GPP S.2.2.3.6;
20 4> start timer T350 with the timer value set to the onDemandSIB-
RequestProhibitTimer,
4> acquire the requested SI message(s) corresponding to the requested SIB(s) as defined in sub-clause 5.2.2.32.
2> for the SI message(s) that, according to the posSI-Schedulinglnfo in the
25 stored SIB1 , contain at least one requested posSIB and for which posSI-BroadcastStatus is set to broadcasting;
8 3> acquire the SI message(s) as defined in sub-clause S.2.2.3.2;
2> for the SI message(s) that, according to the posSI-Schedulinglnfo in the stored SIB1, contain at least one requested posSIB and for which posSI-BroadcastStatus
30 is set to notBroadcasting;
9 3> if onDemandSIB-Request is configured and timer T350 is not running:
4> initiate transmission of the DedicatedSIBRequest message in accordance withSGPP S.2.2.3.6;
4> start timer T350 with the timer value set to the onDemandSIB-
35 RequestProhibitTimer, 4> acquire the requested SI message(s) corresponding to the requested posSIB(s) as defined in sub-clause 5.2.2.32.
NOTE: UE may include on demand request for SIB and/or posSIB(s) in the same DedicatedSIBRequest message.
5
Actions related to transmission of DedicatedSIBRequest message The UE shall set the contents of DedicatedSIBRequest message as follows:
1 > if the procedure is triggered to request the required SIB(s):
2> include requestedSIB-List in the onDemandSIB-RequestList to indicate the
10 requested SIB(s);
1> if the procedure is triggered to request the required posSIB(s):
2> include requestedPosSIB-List in the onDemandSIB-RequestList to indicate the requested posSIB(s).
The UE shall submit the DedicatedSIBRequest message to lower layers for
15 transmission.
Figure imgf000016_0001
SUMMARY
5
An object of embodiments herein is e.g., to improve the performance of a wireless communications network using QoE.
According to an aspect, the object is achieved by a method performed by a wireless
10 terminal. The method is for handling Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network. The QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal. The wireless terminal logs indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application. The wireless terminal sends the logged indications to a network node. The logged indications enable a network node to adapt any system information configuration.
5
According to another aspect, the object is achieved by a method performed by a network node. The method is for handling Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network. The QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal. The network node receives indications from the wireless terminal.
10 The indications are logged by the wireless terminal. The logged indications indicate a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application. The network node adapts any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal.
15 According to another aspect, the object is achieved by a wireless terminal, configured to handle Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network. The QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal. The wireless terminal is further configured to:
- Log indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the 20 QoE for the provided service at the application, and
- send to a network node, the logged indications, which logged indications are adapted to enable a network node to adapt any system information configuration.
According to another aspect, the object is achieved by a network node configured to
25 handle Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network. The QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal. The network node is further configured to:
- Receive, from the wireless terminal, indications logged by the wireless terminal, which logged indications are adapted to indicate a requested system information and its
30 impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, and
- adapt any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal.
Some advantages of embodiments herein e.g., comprise the following: Embodiments herein enable the wireless terminal to send the indications concerning requested system information and e.g., an impact of the absence of the system information or the delay in acquisition of the system information on the services running at the application layer of the wireless terminal. This enables a network node to e.g., adapt
5 any System Information SI configuration.
In addition, an OAM or any third-party application analyzing QoE reports may pinpoint any glitch caused by the absence of the system information on the quality of experience. This would avoid any wrong and/or misleading inference when analyzing the QoE report.
10
BIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Figure 1 is a sequence diagram depicting prior art.
15 Figure 2 is a sequence diagram depicting prior art.
Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram depicting embodiments of a wireless communications network.
Figure 4 is a flow chart depicting embodiments of a method in a wireless terminal,
Figure 5 is a flow chart depicting embodiments of a method in a network node.
20 Figure 6 is a sequence diagram depicting embodiments of a method.
Figures 7 a and b are schematic block diagrams depicting embodiments of a wireless terminal.
Figures 8 a and b are schematic block diagrams depicting embodiments of a network node.
25 Figure 9 schematically illustrates a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer.
Figure 10 is a generalized block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection.
Figures 11 to 14 are flowcharts illustrating methods implemented in a communication
30 system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION
As a part of developing embodiments herein the inventors identified a problem which first will be discussed.
5 Acquisition of system information for the other SI, e.g., SIB2, SIB3, etc., may be per user request, i.e. , on demand, when the network does not broadcast them periodically. Some applications for critical operations may require reading some of the system information from other SI type that may not be broadcasted periodically. E.g., time critical applications that require over-the-air time synchronization shall read the universal time 10 from the network node and for this purpose the user equipment shall perform on-demand SI request and after successful request it shall perform the acquisition of the requested SI.
The demand of the other SI, and the delay caused by the SI request-acquisition procedure, or absence of the system information in a cell, may severely affect the quality of experience for the running services at the application layer.
15
As mentioned above, an object of embodiments herein is e.g., to improve the performance of a wireless communications network using QoE.
20 As further mentioned above, embodiments herein enable a wireless terminal to send the indications concerning requested system information and e.g., an impact of the absence of the system information or the delay in acquisition of the system information on the services running at the application layer of the wireless terminal. This enables a network node to e.g., adapt any SI configuration.
25 In addition, an OAM or any third-party application analyzing QoE reports may pinpoint any glitch caused by the absence of the system information on the quality of experience. This would avoid any wrong/misleading inference when analyzing the QoE report.
30
Figure 3 is a schematic overview depicting a wireless communications network
100 wherein embodiments herein may be implemented. The wireless communications network 100 comprises one or more RANs and one or more CNs. The wireless communications network 100 may use 5G NR but may further use a number of other
35 different technologies, such as, Wi-Fi, LTE, LTE-Advanced, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Global System for Mobile communications/enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (GSM/EDGE), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), just to mention a few possible implementations.
Network nodes such as a network node 110 operate in the wireless
5 communications network 100. The network node 110 may e.g., provide a number of cells and may use these cells for communicating with e.g., a wireless terminal 120. The network node 110, may respectively be a transmission and reception point e.g., a radio access network node such as a base station, e.g., a radio base station such as a NodeB, an evolved Node B (eNB, eNodeB, eNode B), an NR Node B (gNB), a base transceiver 10 station, a radio remote unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point, an Access Point Station (AP STA), an access controller, a UE acting as an access point or a peer in a Device to Device (D2D) communication, or any other network unit capable of communicating with a wireless
15 terminal served by the network node 110, depending e.g., on the radio access technology and terminology used.
Wireless terminals operate in the wireless communications network 100, such as a wireless terminal 120. The wireless terminal 120 may be configured to communicate with the network node 110. The wireless terminal 120 may be used by a user, such as an 20 end-user. The wireless terminal 120 may be referred to as an end-user.
The wireless terminal 120 may e.g., be an NR device, a mobile station, a wireless terminal, an NB-loT device, an eMTC device, an NR RedCap device, a CAT-M device, a Wi-Fi device, an LTE device and a non-access point (non-AP) STA, a STA, that communicates via a base station such as e.g., the network node 110, one or more Access 25 Networks (AN), e.g., RAN, to one or more core networks (CN). It should be understood by the skilled in the art that the term wireless terminal as used herein relates to a non-limiting term which means any UE, terminal, wireless communication terminal, user equipment, (D2D) terminal, or node e.g., smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station communicating within a cell.
30 Methods herein may in some aspects be performed by the network node 110 and the wireless terminal 120. As an alternative, a Distributed Node (DN) and functionality, e.g., comprised in a cloud 140 as shown in Figure 3, may be used for performing or partly performing the methods. An example method according to embodiments herein provides a mechanism for the wireless terminal 120, to measure the impact of a system information, such as SI, request acquisition on the QoE for services running at the application layer of the wireless terminal 120. Some aspects of embodiments herein may be described as follows:
5
A method performed by the wireless terminal 120 for logging an indication related to a request for at least one network system information, such as a request for at least one network system information message. The method enables the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, to log any one or more out of:
10 - an indication indicating that the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, has performed a request for an on-demand SI,
- an indication indicating the delay in acquisition of on-demand SI message e.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand SI to the time of reception of the on-demand SI message,
15 - an indication, indicating an RRC state of the UE AS when sending to RAN request(s) for on-demand SI,
- an indication, indicating whether the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand SI has(have) been requested,
20 - an indication indicating a delay between the paging associated with a service for which on-demand SI has(have) been requested and the request for an on-demand SI. o In a non-limiting embodiment the indication measures elapsed time between the time of receiving paging signal to the time of receiving system information related to that service,
25 - an indication of a delay from the wireless terminal’s 120, such as its application layer’s, transfer, across an API towards the UE AS of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information e.g., relating to the SI, until the application layer receives the requested piece(s) of information from the UE AS. This may include different cases (and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a
30 certain request), e.g.:
- that the UE AS already has the requested information stored,
- that the UE AS has to acquire the requested information from periodically broadcast system information,
-that the UE AS has to acquire the requested information through on-demand
35 request(s) for one or more Sl-message(s), or -that the UE AS has to acquire the requested information by requesting it from the network using dedicated signaling (e.g., RRC signaling).
-If the application layer requests multiple pieces of information, e.g., relating to the SI, this may result that more than one of the above cases apply, e.g.,
5 one piece of information may be received from a periodically broadcast system information message, while another piece of information has to be acquired through on-demand system information request. In another example, the UE AS has to acquired two requested pieces of information through on- demand requests of two Sl-messages, wherein the two pieces of information
10 are delivered to the UE AS layer at different times and the UE AS may also transfer the requested pieces of information to the application layer at different times. In such examples, where the requested information is delivered to the application layer in different parts, the application layer may log (as QoE data) indications of the delay between request and delivery for each delivered part,
15 or, alternatively, the application layer may only log (as QoE data) a single delay indication representing the delay from the request to the delivery of the last part of the requested information.
-As an option, the UE AS may indicate to the application layer which method the UE AS has used to acquire the requested information and the application
20 layer may log this together with, or as part of, the QoE data.
- A timestamp (or other time indication) indicating when an on-demand system information request (or other means of acquisition of information) occurred.
25 Embodiments herein e.g., provide methods performed by the wireless terminal 120, e.g., by the access stratum or by the applications on the device, such as the wireless terminal 120, to log indications concerning a request for a system information and its impact on the quality of experience for the provided service at the application layer.
30
Figure 4 shows an example method performed by the wireless terminal 120, e.g., by an access stratum or by the applications on the terminal 120, e.g., for handling QoE in the wireless communications network 100. The QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal 120. Such service may e.g., be streaming, 35 MTSI, VR, and/or XR. The method may comprise any one or more out of the actions below. Optional actions are referred to as dashed boxes in Figure 4. The following actions may be performed in any suitable order.
Action 401.
5 The wireless terminal 120 may in some embodiments receive a QoE configuration from the network node 110. The QoE configuration configures the wireless terminal 120 to perform QoE related measurements. The configuration may further configure the UE, such as the wireless terminal 120, to log indications related to system information. The indications related to system information may also be referred to as information related to 10 system information herein. To log indications when used herein e.g., means to store information when certain events occur.
The wireless terminal 120 logs indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, e.g., according to the QoE configuration. This may be performed as mentioned in below actions 402, 403, 15 and in some embodiment action 404. This is e.g., to enable the wireless terminal 120 to measure the impact of system information, such as SI, request acquisition on the QoE for the services running at the application layer.
Action 402.
20 The wireless terminal 120 logs a first indication. This may e.g., be performed by an application layer of the application on the wireless terminal 120. The first indication may e.g., be logged at the time of sending a request for system information (SI) to the network, such as the network node 110. The first indication indicates a requested system information, e.g., that system information is requested, and in some embodiments,
25 indications related to this.
This logging is according to the QoE configuration.
Action 403.
In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120 logs a second indication e.g., by 30 an Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120. An AS of the wireless terminal 120 e.g., means managing the radio resources and the radio related signalling such as e g. RRC (Radio Resource Control) signalling. The second indication indicates an impact of the requested system information on the QoE for the provided service at the application. This logging is according to the QoE configuration. Examples of impacts of the requested system information on the QoE for the provided service at the application, may e.g., comprise measuring delays from receiving information in system information until processed and actions taken in the application in the wireless terminal 120.
5
Action 404.
In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120 logs a third indication. The third indication may indicate a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration.
10 The third indication may be logged to indicate an impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
In some embodiments, the third indication is logged to indicate and/or comprise, any one or more out of:
- an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information
15 message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request for on-demand system information to the time of reception of the on-demand system information message,
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE AS of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a RAN requests for on-demand system
20 information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has/have been requested,
- an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for
25 which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has/have been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
- an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of
30 information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
- a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred. This may e.g., be referred to as a time indication such as e.g., a timestamp. wherein the third indication is comprised in the logged indications to be sent to the network node 110.
Action 405.
5 In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120 indicates, by a UE AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal 120, a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system information. Indicating the method may thereby e.g., enable the application layer to log the method together with, or as part of the QoE data.
This is an advantage since it gives the possibility to collect information, e.g. delays, 10 from both the AS and the application layer of the wireless terminal 120.
Action 406.
In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120 sends a report to the network node 110. The report may relate to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the 15 service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration. In some of these embodiments, the measured QoE may be impacted according to the logged indications.
This is an advantage since it gives the network node 110 the possibility to analyze the delays and possibly take actions to reduce the delays.
20 Action 407.
The wireless terminal 120 then sends the logged indications to the network node 110. The logged indications e.g., enable a network node, such as the network node 110, to adapt any system information configuration.
25
Figure 5 shows an example method performed by the network node 110 e.g., for handling QoE in the wireless communications network 100. The QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal 120. The method may comprise any one or more out of the actions below. Optional actions are referred to as dashed 30 boxes in Figure 4. The following actions may be performed in any suitable order.
Action 501.
The network node 110 may in some optional embodiments send a QoE configuration to the wireless terminal 120. The QoE configuration may e.g., configure the wireless terminal 120 to perform QoE related measurements and/or e.g., to log indications related to system information.
Action 502.
5 The network node 110 receives indications from the wireless terminal 120. The indications have been logged by the wireless terminal 120 e.g., according to the QoE configuration. The logged indications may indicate a requested system information and its impact on a QoE for the provided service at the application.
In some embodiments, the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 10 according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of:
A first indication indicating a request for system information and, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
In some embodiments, the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 15 according to the QoE configuration further comprises a third indication. The third indication indicates and/or comprising any one or more out of:
- An indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, e.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request for on-demand system information to the time of reception of the
20 on-demand system information message,
- an indication, indicating a state of a UE AS of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a RAN, requests for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging 25 associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has/have been requested,
- an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has/have been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
30 - an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request, and - a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred. This may e.g., be referred to as a time indication such as e.g., a timestamp
5 Action 503.
In some embodiments, the network node 110 adapts any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal 120.
The network node 110 may use the received indications for other thing, as will be described below.
10
Action 504.
In some embodiments, the network node 110 receives a report from the wireless terminal 120. The report may in these embodiments relate to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application. The QoE may be 15 measured according to the sent QoE configuration. The measured QoE is impacted according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal 120.
The method will now be further explained and exemplified in below embodiments.
20 These below embodiments may be combined with any suitable embodiment as described above.
Disclaimers:
• The terms “LIE”, “terminal equipment”, “wireless terminal” and “terminal”, 25 “wireless device” are used interchangeably.
• The terms “QoE measurement report”, “QoE report”, “measurement report” measurement” and “report” are used interchangeably.
• The terms UE RRC configuration, UE RRC context, RRC configuration, RRC context, or just configuration and context are used interchangeably.
30 • The terms “QoE measurement configuration”, QoE measurement and reporting configuration”, “QoE configuration” may be used interchangeably. Note that the term “QoE measurement” also may refer to a measurement or data collection performed for the purpose of determining one or more QoE metric(s).
• The terms “Session Start indication”, “Recording Session Indication”, and in 35 some cases “indication” are to a large extent used interchangeably. • The Session Start Indication is used as an example and the embodiments herein may be applied to any indication that a UE access stratum may receive from upper layer/applications.
• The terms “service” and “application” are used interchangeably.
5 • The terms “MCE” and “TCE” are used interchangeably and may both be seen as example realizations of a QoE Collector Entity (CE).
• The term “pause” (such as in “pause indication”) is often used herein as equivalent to “pause QoE measurement reporting”. Similarly, the term “resume” (such as in “resume indication”) is often used herein as equivalent to “resume QoE measurement
10 reporting”.
• A network node may be a RAN node, a gNB, eNB, en-gNB, ng-eNB, gNB-CU, gNB-CU-CP, gNB-CU-UP, gNB-DU, eNB-CU, eNB-CU-CP, eNB-CU-UP, eNB-DU, IAB- nodes, lAB-donors, lAB-donor-CU, lAB-donor-CU-CP, lAB-donor-CU-UP, lAB-donor-DU, IAB-MT, O-CU, O-CU-CP, O-CU-UP, O-DU, O-RU, O-eNB, a Core Network node, an
15 OAM node, an SMO node.
• The terms “system information”, “and “SI” are to a large extent used interchangeably.
20 The flowchart for the wireless terminal 120, actions upon a need for system information is shown in Figure 6. In Figure 6 it is illustrated an example of the wireless terminal actions when performed by the wireless terminal 120 UE Access Stratum and the application(s) in the wireless terminal 120 upon on-demand system information (SI) request according to some example embodiments.
25
601. The network node 110, sends a QoE configuration, e.g., a list of QoE configuration(s) to the UE Access Stratum. Alternatively, the network node 110 may send QoE configurations to the UE Access Stratum in subsequent independent messages. The configuration may indicate to the UE Access Stratum, such as the wireless terminal 120:
30 • Whether to log on-demand SI related info or not.
• Whether to log only on-demand SI related info (which are not broadcasted at the time when the wireless terminal 120 demands SI) or also for already broadcasted system information. The OAM system or RAN may use this information to compare the difference between the broadcasting and not broadcasting system information. • An event driven logging wherein the logging is performed only when the ‘SI acquisition time’ is above a threshold.
• An event driven logging wherein the logging is performed only when a specific SI is part of the on-demand SI.
5 This relates to and may combined with Actions 401 and 501 described above.
602. The wireless terminal 120 such as its UE Access Stratum sends the QoE configuration(s) to its upper layers (in particular the application layer) and configures itself to report the upcoming QoE measurement results to the network such as the network
10 node 110.
603. The upper layers at the wireless terminal 120, (e.g., application layer) sends a request to the UE Access Stratum of the wireless terminal 120 indicating a need for a system information (e.g., coordinated universal time, GPS related information, service-
15 related information (e.g., area configuration for eMBMS).
604. The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum performs the On- demand SI request if the requested system information is not broadcasted by the network, such as the network node 110.
20
605. The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum acquires the system information. Note that in some embodiments this procedure may fail, and the wireless terminal 120, may not successfully acquire the requested system information.
25 606. The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum logs indications related to the requested SI message, also referred to as first indications, and sends the system information or parts of the system information to its upper layers (e.g., the application layer). This relates to and may combined with Action 402 described above.
30 607. The wireless terminal 120, such as its upper layer (e.g., application layer requesting for the system information) logs indications concerning the requested system information, also referred to as second indications. This may (e.g., be a list of the required system information item(s), e.g., SIB(s), as well as optionally the impact of the absence of system information on the provided service). This relates to and may combined with
35 Action 403 described above. 608. The wireless terminal 120, such as its upper layer (e.g., application requesting for the system information) sends the indications concerning the requested system information to the UE Access Stratum of the wireless terminal 120, e.g., in 5 conjunction with (i.e. together with) a QoE report, or as a part of a QoE report.
609. The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum collects the information concerning the SI request received from upper layers, also referred to as first indications, and the impact of the requested system information on the quality of
10 experience of the upper layer services, also referred to as the logged second indications, and sends the indications, e.g., as a report, to the network such as the network node 110. Preferably, together with the SI related information the UE Access Stratum received from the upper layers, such as the first indications, (e.g., together with or as a part of a QoE report) the UE Access Stratum also sends the SI related information it has logged itself.
15 This relates to and may combined with Actions 405, 406, 502 and 504 described above.
610. The network node 110 may use the received indications to optimize the system information configuration. In addition, the RAN node may send this information to other RAN node(s) (which for example may be RAN node(s) in whose cell(s) some of the 20 information received from the upper layers has been collected or to the OAM system. In such a case, this(these) other RAN node(s) and/or the OAM system may use the information to optimize/improve the system information configuration in the concerned cell(s). This relates to and may combined with Action 503 described above.
Note that the configuration including the indication related to logging system 25 information related information may be received by the network node 110, from an external entity or a logical node e.g., OAM or SMO.
Information and indications to be logged by the wireless terminal 120, e.g., by 30 either the access stratum or by the upper layers, e.g., applications, and e.g., at the time of request for system information (SI).
The embodiments below may when suitable be combined with each other and any embodiment described above. In some embodiments herein, the radio layers in the wireless terminal 120, e.g., the Access Stratum (AS) layers in the wireless terminal 120, operating according to the 3GPP NR or LTE standard, or the application layer in the wireless terminal 120, upon request for the system information (in a non-limiting example, coordinated universal time) may
5 perform one or more of the following actions. It should be noted that the application layer may be unaware of that the information it requests, e.g., from the UE Access Stratum is provided by the network, such as the network node 110, in the form of system information, i.e. the application layer may only know that it may request the information from the UE Access Stratum, but may not know how the UE Access Stratum gets it).
10 In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120, (e.g., its access stratum (AS) or its upper layer e.g., application layer) logs (and in most cases later reports to the network such as the network node 110 the one or more of the following information. This relates to and may combined with any one or more of the Actions 402, 403, and/or 404 described above. The indications relate to any of the first, second and/or third indications as
15 mentioned above.
• An indication, indicating the request for a system information.
• An indication, indicating the number of requested system information items, e.g., SIB(s), Sl-message(s) and/or parameters or information elements.
• An indication, indicating the list of the requested system information items, e.g.,
20 SIB(s), Sl-message(s) and/or parameters or information elements.
• An indication, indicating the number of requests (e.g., number of subsequent requests) to obtain a specific on-demand system information item, e.g., Sl-message or SIB,
• An indication, indicating the number of requests to obtain a set of on-demand
25 system information items, e.g., Sl-message(s), SIB(s), parameters or information elements,
• An indication, indicating one or more obtained on-demand system information item(s), e.g., Sl-message(s), SIB(s), parameter(s) and/or information element(s).
• An indication, indicating the number of obtained on-demand system information
30 item(s), e.g., Sl-message(s), SIB(s), parameter(s) and/or information element(s).
• An indication, indicating the RRC state of the UE AS when sending to RAN such as the network node 110 request(s) for on-demand SI.
• Indication(s) indicating service type(s) and/or upper layer information for which request(s) for on-demand Sl(s) has(have) been sent from the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS or for which on-demand SI has been received by the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS. E.g., service subtype, application identity, app version, app vendor.
• Indication(s), indicating a timestamp(s) of the initiation(s) of the system information request(s) at the wireless terminal 120, e.g., at its the application layer.
5 • Indication(s), indicating the timestamp(s) of the end of the system information request at the wireless terminal 120, such as its application or at the UE AS. For instance, such a timestamp may indicate the time of reception of the requested system information.
• An indication, indicating a delay incurred by the absence of the system information.
10 • An indication, indicating if the network such as the network node 110 (a serving RAN node) or serving cell does not support the requested system information.
• An indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, has received a paging (e.g., a CN initiated paging or a RAN initiated paging) associated to a service for which on-demand SI has(have) been requested or for which on-demand SI has(have)
15 been obtained. Optionally, this may be applicable for obtained periodically broadcast SI too.
• An indication indicating a delay between a paging (e.g., a CN paging or a RAN paging) associated to a service for which on-demand SI has(have) been requested and the request for an on-demand SI. Optionally, this may be applicable for obtained
20 periodically broadcast SI too.
• An indication indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, has performed a change of carrier frequency before requesting or after requesting and receiving on- demand SI.
• An indication indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, has performed a
25 change of cell before requesting or after requesting and receiving on-demand SI. The change of cell may e.g., be due to handover, cell selection, cell reselection, reestablishment or resume.
• An indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has changed configuration related to carrier aggregation (CA) or dual connectivity (DC), e.g., whether
30 the wireless terminal 120, has been configured with CA/DC when previously not, before requesting or after requesting and receiving on-demand SI.
• An indication indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, has performed a transition from a first RRC state (e.g., RRCJNACTIVE state or RRCJDLE state) to a second RRC state (e.g., RRC_CONNECTED state) in conjunction with the request of on-
35 demand SI (e.g., just before or immediately after requesting on-demand SI), and optionally an indication of a delay (e.g., in number of radio frames, slots, milliseconds, or equivalent, or any other time unit) to perform a transition from the first RRC state to the second RRC state.
• An indication indicating a delay (e.g., in number of radio frames, milliseconds, or 5 equivalent, or any other time unit) from the acquisition of the requested on-demand SI until user data payload is transmitted in the uplink or received in the downlink, e.g., until the radio frame or slot carrying user data payload in either downlink or uplink or both.
• Indication(s) indicating radio bearer(s) and/or radio physical channel(s) and/or radio logical channel(s) used when the on-demand SI was requested.
10 • An indication indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, such as e.g., its UE AS, upon request from upper layer to provide information comprised in one or more on- demand SI, instead of requesting to the network such as the network node 110 to provide such information, it used instead information already available at the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS (e.g., as preconfigured or received prior to the upper layer request
15 and still valid).
O The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS may have obtained such information from a first RAN node such as the network node
110 or another network node, e.g., at initial connection setup. Such information may have been originated from a second RAN node in a second
20 communication system and conveyed to the wireless terminal 120, via one or more Core Network nodes and the first RAN node (e.g., using a mechanism like a RIM (RAN Information Management) function). o It may also be hard coded/specified that for certain type of QoE measurements, e.g., based on service type, sub-service type, etc., the
25 wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS performs SI acquisition (e.g., requesting and receiving on-demand SI) and sends to the application. It may also be configured in RRC signalling whether the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS should measure the SI acquisition time (e.g., in terms of a timestamp or a delay indication), e.g., based on explicit indication or implicitly
30 based on e.g., service type, sub-service type, etc.
• An indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS, upon request from an upper layer, e.g., the application layer, to provide information comprised in on-demand SI (i.e. in one or more on-demand Sl-message(s) or SIB(s)), did request such information from the network such as the network node 110 with condition(s) 35 that the same information was not already available at the UE AS or, if it was stored/available in the past, is now outdated or about to become outdated (e.g., a timer controlling a refresh of the information has expired).
• An indication indicating whether (each of) the requested system information items (e.g., Sl-message, SIB, parameter or information element) was being broadcasted
5 by the network such as the network node 110 or was (each of) the requested system information part of the on-demand SI request/response procedure. That is, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS logs information related to the broadcast/request- response status of (each of) the system information item(s) requested by the application. Such an indication may be implicit (e.g., inclusion of an indicator whether msg1/msg3
10 based on-demand SI request procedure was used) or an explicit indication.
• An indication indicating whether the msg1 based on-demand SI request procedure was used to acquire (each of) the requested system information items or msg3 based on-demand SI request procedure was used to acquire (each of) the requested system information. Note that this applies to requested information that is available as on-
15 demand system information, while other information requested by the application layer may be available via periodically broadcast system information or some other means, including the information is already stored in the wireless terminal 120,. Optionally, if some of the information the wireless terminal 120, such as its application layer requested is not obtained via on-demand SI, the means used to obtain this information may also be 20 indicated.
• An indication indicating whether there was a cell reselection or handover was performed between the time, the UE AS of the wireless terminal 120 was receiving the system information request from the application layer to the time of successfully delivering the requested system information to the application layer.
25
In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS received from a first RAN node such as the network node 110, the QoE configuration such as a first QoE configuration (or a first list of QoE configurations) to collect and report QoE measurements for a first application (or for a first list of applications, e.g., in terms of 30 service type(s)), and upon request from at least one application associated with the first QoE configuration, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS has sent a first request to the network, such as the network node 110 e.g., a first RAN node, and obtained information comprised in at least one on-demand Sl-message. The said information is to be used by the at least one application associated to the first QoE configuration (or to the 35 first list of QoE configurations). The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS may subsequently receive from the first RAN node such as the network node 110 or a second RAN node a second QoE configuration (or a second list of QoE configurations) to collect and report QoE measurements for a second application (or for a second list of applications, e.g., in terms of service type(s)). At least one of the applications for which 5 the second QoE configuration (or the second list of QoE configurations) applies may request the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS to obtain information comprised at least in part in the already acquired on-demand SI. In this case, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS may:
Transmit a second request to a RAN node such as the network node 110 in 10 order, e.g., to obtain most up-to-date on-demand SI (e.g., when the requested information is time information, such as an indication of the coordinated universal time (UTC)) and send the newly received information to at least one application associated to the second QoE configuration (or second list of QoE configurations) and to at least one application associated to the second QoE configuration (or second list of QoE configurations). In 15 addition, the UE AS may send the newly received information to the at least one application associated with the first QoE configuration (or the first list of QoE configurations) in order to replace the previously sent information with the new, possibly updated, information.
Refrain from transmitting a second request to a RAN node such as the 20 network node 110 (to obtain up-to-date on-demand SI) and instead the wireless terminal 120 may transmit the already available information to at least one application associated to the second QoE configuration (or second list of QoE configurations) and optionally retransmit it to the at least one application associated to the first QoE configuration (or first list of QoE configurations).
25 Determine if a timer associated to a period of validity of previously received information obtained from on-demand SI is still running and if so, send the previously received information to the application layer to be used by the at least one application associated with the second QoE configuration (or the second list of QoE configurations).
30 In some other embodiments that may be used together with other embodiments, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS may combine information obtained via a first request for on-demand SI with information obtained via a second (third, fourth...) request for on-demand SI and send to the upper layer, e.g., the application layer, information, e.g., comprising a set of information items, comprising at least part of the information
35 comprised in the first requested and obtained on-demand SI and at least part of the information comprised in the second (third, fourth...) requested and obtained on-demand SI.
In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS, e.g., the UE RRC layer, may send request(s) to a RAN node such as the network node 110 for
5 obtaining on-demand SI due to request(s) received from the wireless terminal 120, upper layers (e.g., from the application layer) according to various parameters e.g., specifying: a maximum number of requests for on-demand SI transmitted in a certain time interval (for any on-demand SI or for a specific on-demand Sl-message), request(s) for a maximum number of on-demand Sl-messages during a certain time interval, a minimum time
10 interval between consecutive requests of on-demand SI, a prohibit time before subsequent requests for on-demand SI towards a RAN node such as the network node 110, a time interval associated to on-demand SI during which obtained information comprised in the requested on-demand SI is retained/stored and/or is considered as valid/accurate.
15
In some embodiments, a first RAN node such as the network node 110 may send to the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS, as part of, or together with a QoE configuration, or together with or as part of a RAN Visible QoE configuration, an indication indicating whether information comprised in on-demand SI would be available or not, 20 and/or an indication indicating that information comprised in on-demand SI needed for at least one service type (or application) may be requested by the wireless terminal 120, to a specific carrier frequency.
In some embodiments, a first RAN node such as the network node 110 may receive 25 a QoE configuration or a list of QoE configurations from a second RAN node or from a third network node (e.g., a CN node, an OAM node, an SMO node), and derive from at least one of attributes of QoE configuration (e.g., a service type) that at least one on- demand SI item is required to perform at least part of the QoE measurements for which QoE configuration is received. The first RAN node such as the network node 110 may 30 then preschedule and/or broadcast the otherwise on-demand SI in advance, i.e. before receiving corresponding request from the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS. In essence, the RAN node such as the network node 110 may - at least temporarily - change the broadcast status of the concerned Sl-message from “notBroadcasting” (i.e. available on-demand) to “broadcasting”.
35 In some embodiments, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS logs information about performed on-demand SI requests (and possibly also logs information about other information acquisition events, such as acquisition of periodically broadcast system information) and associates this logged information with a certain application 5 session, based on received session start and session stop indications from the application layer. As an example, the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS may receive from the application layer a session starts indication and later a request for certain information (which may trigger the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS to perform an on-demand system information request), and later also a session stop indication (which may have the 10 form of a QoE report). The wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS may then associate the logged information (e.g., a logged indication of a performed on-demand SI request) with the concerned application session, and when the UE AS receives a QoE report from the application layer for this session (where the QoE report may constitute an implicit session stop indication), the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE AS sends the logged 15 information together with the QoE report to the network such as the network node 110.
In some embodiments, the network such as the network node 110 configures the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum to log (and later report) information related to on-demand SI acquisitions it performs (and optionally also acquisitions of 20 periodically broadcast SI), when the SI acquisition is triggered by a request from upper layers, e.g., the application layer.
When the a wireless terminal 120, such as its application layer logs and reports (e.g., in the QoE report) information about requests for information, it sends to the UE 25 Access Stratum, and the UE Access Stratum logs and reports information related to SI acquisition, e.g., on-demand acquisition of one or more Sl-message(s) (optionally only SI acquisition triggered by requests from the application layer), the network, e.g., the RAN or the O&M system, may correlate this information (i.e. identify information reported from the wireless terminal 120, ’s application layer and information reported from the UE Access 30 Stratum which pertain to the same overall information request/acquisition procedure) and may use this information correlation to derive potential optimizations of relevant configurations in the network and in the wireless terminal 120, e.g., SI related configuration, such as changing the periodicity of SIBs and/or Sl-messages and/or determining which SIBs/SI-messages should be periodically broadcast and which should 35 be available on-demand. In some embodiments, the information request related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120, such as its application layer, includes indication(s) or description(s) of the requested information.
5
In some embodiments, the SI acquisition related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum includes information about the acquired Sl-message(s).
10 In some embodiments, the SI acquisition related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum includes indication(s) about the SIB(s) and/or parameters or information elements the wireless terminal 120, was interested in (as per the request from the application layer) in the acquired Sl-message(s).
15 In some embodiments, the SI acquisition related information logged and reported by the wireless terminal 120, such as its UE Access Stratum includes information about the acquired Sl-message(s) as well as indication(s) about the SIB(s) the wireless terminal 120, was interested in (as per the request from the application layer) in the acquired Sl- message(s).
20
Figures 7a and 7b show examples of an arrangement in the wireless terminal 120.
The wireless terminal 120 may comprise an input and output interface 700 configured to communicate e.g., with any of the networking entities operating in the
25 wireless communications network 100 of embodiments herein such as e.g., the network node 110. The input and output interface 700 may comprise a receiver, e.g., wired and/or wireless, (not shown) and a transmitter, e.g., wired and/or wireless, (not shown).
The wireless terminal 120 may comprise any one or more out of: a receiving unit
30 710, a logging unit 720, a sending unit 730, and an indicating unit 740 to perform the method actions as described herein, e.g., actions 401-407 above.
The embodiments herein may be implemented through a respective processor or one or more processors, such as at least one processor 760 of a processing circuitry in
35 the wireless terminal 120 depicted in Figure 7a, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. The program code mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the wireless terminal 120. One such carrier
5 may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program code on a server and downloaded to the wireless terminal 120.
The wireless terminal 120 may further comprise a memory 770 comprising one or
10 more memory units. The memory 770 comprises instructions executable by the processor in the wireless terminal 120. The memory 770 is arranged to be used to store instructions, data, configurations, measurements, and applications to perform the methods herein when being executed in the wireless terminal 120.
15 In some embodiments, a computer program 780 comprises instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor 760, cause the at least one processor 760 of the wireless terminal 120 to perform the actions above.
In some embodiments, a respective carrier 790 comprises the respective computer
20 program 780, wherein the carrier 790 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the functional modules in the
25 wireless terminal 120, described below may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., stored in the wireless terminal 120, that when executed by the respective one or more processors such as the at least one processor 760 described above cause the respective at least one processor 760 to perform actions according to any of the actions above. One
30 or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry (ASIC), or several processors and various digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a system-on-a-chip (SoC).
35 Figure 8a and 8b show examples of an arrangement in the network node 110. The network node 110 may comprise an input and output interface 800 configured to communicate e.g., with any of the networking entities operating in the wireless communications network 100 of embodiments herein, such as e.g., the wireless terminal 120. The input and output interface 800 may comprise a receiver, e.g., wired
5 and/or wireless, (not shown) and a transmitter, e.g., wired and/or wireless, (not shown).
The network node 110 may comprise any one or more out of: an adapting unit 810, a sending unit 820, and a receiving unit 830 to perform the method actions as described herein, e.g., actions 501-504 above.
10
The embodiments herein may be implemented through a respective processor or one or more processors, such as at least one processor 860 of a processing circuitry in the network node 110 depicted in Figure 8a, together with computer program code for performing the functions and actions of the embodiments herein. The program code
15 mentioned above may also be provided as a computer program product, for instance in the form of a data carrier carrying computer program code for performing the embodiments herein when being loaded into the network node 110. One such carrier may be in the form of a CD ROM disc. It is however feasible with other data carriers such as a memory stick. The computer program code may furthermore be provided as pure program
20 code on a server and downloaded to the network node 110.
The network node 110 may further comprise a memory 870 comprising one or more memory units. The memory 870 comprises instructions executable by the processor in the network node 110. The memory 870 is arranged to be used to store instructions,
25 data, configurations, and applications to perform the methods herein when being executed in the network node 110.
In some embodiments, a computer program 880 comprises instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor 860, cause the at least one processor 860 of
30 the network node 110 to perform the actions above.
In some embodiments, a respective carrier 890 comprises the respective computer program 880, wherein the carrier 890 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave
35 signal, or a computer-readable storage medium. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the functional modules in the network node 110, described below may refer to a combination of analog and digital circuits, and/or one or more processors configured with software and/or firmware, e.g., 5 stored in the network node 110, that when executed by the respective one or more processors such as the at least one processor 860 described above cause the respective at least one processor 860 to perform actions according to any of the actions above. One or more of these processors, as well as the other digital hardware, may be included in a single Application-Specific Integrated Circuitry (ASIC), or several processors and various 10 digital hardware may be distributed among several separate components, whether individually packaged or assembled into a system-on-a-chip (SoC).
The embodiments herein are not limited to the above described preferred
15 embodiments. Various alteratives, modifications and equivalents may be used.
Below, some example embodiments 1-22 are shortly described. See e.g., Figures 4, 5, 6, 7a, 7b, 8a, and 8b.
20
Embodiment 1. A method performed by a wireless terminal 120, e.g., by an access stratum or by the applications on the terminal 120, e.g., for handling Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal 120, the method e.g., 25 comprising any one or more out of:
In some optional embodiments, receiving 401 from a network node 110, a QoE configuration e.g., comprising to perform QoE related measurements and e.g., to log indications related to system information,
Logging 402, 403, 404 indications indicating a requested system information and its 30 impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, e.g., according to the QoE configuration, sending 406, to the network node 110, the logged indications, which logged indications e.g., enables a network node to e.g., adapt any system information configuration.
35 Embodiment 2. The method according to Embodiment 1, further comprising: sending to the network node 110, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration, which measured QoE is impacted according to the logged indications.
5
Embodiment 3. The method according to any of the Embodiments 1-2, wherein the logging 402, 403 of the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of:
10 logging, 402 e.g., by an application layer of the application on the wireless terminal 120, a first indication indicating a request for system information and logging, 403 e.g., by an Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
15
Embodiment 4. The method according to any of the Embodiments 1-3, wherein the logging of the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration further comprises:
20 logging 404 a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
- an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the on-demand system information message
25 - an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a Radio Access network, RAN, requests for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging 30 associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested,
- an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested and the request for an on-demand system information, - an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may
5 not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
- a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred, and wherein the third indication is comprised in the logged indications to be sent to the network node 110.
10
Embodiment 5. The method according to any of the Embodiments 1-4, the method further comprising: indicating 405 by a UE Access Stratum, AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal 120 a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system
15 information, thereby e.g., enabling the application layer to log the method together with or as part of the QoE data.
Embodiment 6. A computer program 780 comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor 760, causes the processor 760 to perform actions according to 20 any of the Embodiments 1-5.
Embodiment 7. A carrier 790 comprising the computer program 780 of
Embodiment 6, wherein the carrier 790 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave 25 signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
Embodiment 8. A method performed by a network node 110 e.g., for handling Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal 120, the method
30 e.g., comprising any one or more out of: sending 501 to the wireless terminal 120, a QoE configuration, e.g., comprising to perform QoE related measurements and e.g., to log indications related to system information, receiving 502, from the wireless terminal 120, indications logged by the wireless 35 terminal 120 e.g., according to the QoE configuration, which logged indications indicate a requested system information and its impact on an QoE for the provided service at the application, adapting 503 any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal 120.
5
Embodiment 9. The method according to Embodiment 8, further comprising: receiving 504 from the wireless terminal 120, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application, which QoE is measured according to the sent QoE configuration, and which measured QoE is impacted 10 according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal 120.
Embodiment 10. The method according to any of the Embodiments 8-9, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of:
15 a first indication indicating a request for system information and, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
Embodiment 11. The method according to any of the Embodiments 8-10, 20 wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration further comprises a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
- an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the
25 on-demand system information message
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a Radio Access network, RAN, requests for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
30 - an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested,
- an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has
35 been requested and the request for an on-demand system information, - an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an API towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may
5 not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
- a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred.
Embodiment 12. A computer program 880 comprising instructions, which when
10 executed by a processor 860, causes the processor 860 to perform actions according to any of the Embodiments 8-11.
Embodiment 13. A carrier 890 comprising the computer program 880 of Embodiment 12, wherein the carrier 890 is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, 15 an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
Embodiment 14. A wireless terminal 120 e.g., comprising an access stratum on the terminal 120 and an application on the terminal 120, configured to e.g., handle Quality 20 of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal 120, the wireless terminal 120 is e.g., further configured to any one or more out of: receive, e.g., by means of a receiving unit 710 in the wireless terminal 120, from a network node 110, a QoE configuration, e.g., comprising to perform QoE related 25 measurements and e.g., to log indications related to system information, log, e.g., by means of a logging unit 720 in the wireless terminal 120, indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, e.g., according to the QoE configuration, send, e.g., by means of a sending unit 730 in the wireless terminal 120, to the 30 network node 110, the logged indications, which logged indications e.g., are adapted to enable a network node to e.g., adapt any system information configuration.
Embodiment 15. The wireless terminal 120 according to Embodiment 14, further configured to: send, e.g., by means of the sending unit730 in the wireless terminal 120, to the network node 110, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120 on the service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration, which measured QoE is adapted to be impacted according to the logged indications.
5
Embodiment 16. The wireless terminal 120 according to any of the Embodiments 14-15, further configured to log, e.g., by means of the logging unit 720 in the wireless terminal 120, the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE 10 configuration by any one or more out of: logging, e.g., by an application layer of the application on the wireless terminal 120, a first indication indicating a request for system information and logging, e.g., by an Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for 15 the provided service at the application.
Embodiment 17. The wireless terminal 120 according to any of the Embodiments 14-16, further configured to log, e.g., by means of the logging unit 720 in the wireless terminal 120, the indication indicating the requested system information and
20 its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration by: logging a third indication indicating any one or more out of: an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed 25 between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the on-demand system information message
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a Radio Access network, RAN, requests for on-demand system information related to the requested system
30 information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested, - an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
- an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an API towards 5 the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
- a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system
10 information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred, and wherein the third indication is comprised in the logged indications to be sent to the network node 110.
Embodiment 18. The wireless terminal 120 according to any of the
15 Embodiments 14-17, further configured to: indicate, e.g., by means of an indicating unit 740 in the wireless terminal 120, by a UE Access Stratum, AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal 120 a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system information, thereby e.g., enabling the application layer to log the method together with or as part of the QoE data.
20
Embodiment 19. A network node 110 e.g., configured to handle Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network 100, which QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal 120, the network node 110 e.g., is further configured to any one or more out of:
25 In some optional embodiments, send, e.g., by means of a sending unit 820 in the network node 110, to the wireless terminal 120, a QoE configuration, In some optional embodiments, receive, e.g., by means of a receiving unit 830 in the network node 110, from the wireless terminal 120, indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 e.g., according to
30 the QoE configuration, which logged indications are adapted to indicate a requested system information and its impact on an QoE for the provided service at the application, adapt, e.g., by means of an adapting unit 810 in the network node 110, any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal 120.
35 Embodiment 20. The network node 110 according to Embodiment 19, further configured to: receive, e.g., by means of the receiving unit 830 in the network node 110, from the wireless terminal 120, a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal 120
5 on the service provided at the application, which QoE is adapted to be measured according to the sent QoE configuration, and which measured QoE is adapted to be impacted according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal 120.
Embodiment 21. The network node 110 according to any of the Embodiments
10 19-20, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration are adapted to comprise any one or more out of: a first indication indicating a request for system information and, a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
15
Embodiment 22. The network node 110 according to any of the Embodiments 19-21, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal 120 according to the QoE configuration are adapted to further comprise a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
20 an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information, E.g., time elapsed between initiation of the request from on-demand system information to the time of reception of the on-demand system information message
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE Access 25 Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, when sending to a Radio Access network,
RAN, requests for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal 120 has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the
30 requested system information has been requested,
- an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
- an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an API towards 35 the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal 120, of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested pieces of information from the UE AS, e.g., including different cases and the application layer may not be aware of which one that applies to a certain request,
- a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system
5 information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred.
Abbreviation Explanation
3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project
10 5GCN 5G Core Network
5GS 5G System
AMF Access and Mobility Management Function
AN Access Network
API Application Programming Interface
15 AS Access Stratum
CN Core Network
CP Control Plane
CU Central Unit
DC Dual Connectivity
20 DU Distributed Unit eNB E-UTRAN NodeB
EN-DC E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity
E-UTRA Evolved UTRA
E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN
25 gNB Radio base station in NR
ID Identifier/ldentity
IE Information Element
LTE Long Term Evolution
MCE Measurement Collector Entity
30 MME Mobility Management Entity
MN Master Node
MR-DC Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity
NE-DC NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity
NEF Network Exposure Function
35 NG Next Generation NGEN-DC NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity
NG-RAN NG Radio Access Network
NR New Radio
OAM/O&M Operation and Maintenance
5 PCF Policy Control Function
QCI QoS Class Identifier
QMC QoE Measurement Collection
QoE Quality of Experience
QoE CE QoE Collector Entity
10 QoS Quality of Service
RAN Radio Access Network
RAT Radio Access Technology
RRC Radio Resource Control
S1 The interface between the RAN and the CN in LTE.
15 S1AP S1 Application Protocol
SI System Information
SIB System Information Block
SMF Session Management Function
SMO Service Management and Orchestration
20 SN Secondary Node
TCE Trace Collector Entity
TS Technical Specification
UE User Equipment
UTC Coordinated Universal Time
25
Further Extensions and Variations
With reference to Figure 9, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes a telecommunication network 3210 such as the wireless communication 30 network 100, e.g., an loT network, or a WLAN, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises an access network 3211 , such as a radio access network, and a core network 3214. The access network 3211 comprises a plurality of base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c, such as the network node 110, access nodes, AP STAs NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area 35 3213a, 3213b, 3213c. Each base station 3212a, 3212b, 3212c is connectable to the core network 3214 over a wired or wireless connection 3215. A first UE e.g., the wireless terminal 120, such as a Non-AP STA 3291 located in coverage area 3213c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 3212c. A second UE 3292 e.g., the wireless terminal 120, such as a Non-AP STA in coverage area 3213a 5 is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 3212a. While a plurality of UEs 3291, 3292 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base station 3212.
The telecommunication network 3210 is itself connected to a host computer 3230, 10 which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud- implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm. The host computer 3230 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The connections 3221, 3222 between the telecommunication network 3210 and the host computer 3230 15 may extend directly from the core network 3214 to the host computer 3230 or may go via an optional intermediate network 3220. The intermediate network 3220 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; the intermediate network 3220, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 3220 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).
20 The communication system of Figure 9 as a whole enables connectivity between one of the connected UEs 3291 , 3292 and the host computer 3230. The connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 3250. The host computer 3230 and the connected UEs 3291, 3292 are configured to communicate data and/or signaling via the OTT connection 3250, using the access network 3211, the core network 3214, any 25 intermediate network 3220 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 3250 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 3250 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, a base station 3212 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink 30 communication with data originating from a host computer 3230 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE 3291. Similarly, the base station 3212 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 3291 towards the host computer 3230.
Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base 35 station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 10. In a communication system 3300, a host computer 3310 comprises hardware 3315 including a communication interface 3316 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300. The host computer 3310 further comprises
5 processing circuitry 3318, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuitry 3318 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The host computer 3310 further comprises software 3311, which is stored in or accessible by the host
10 computer 3310 and executable by the processing circuitry 3318. The software 3311 includes a host application 3312. The host application 3312 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a UE 3330 connecting via an OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the remote user, the host application 3312 may provide user data which is transmitted using
15 the OTT connection 3350.
The communication system 3300 further includes a base station 3320 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 3325 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 3310 and with the UE 3330. The hardware 3325 may include a communication interface 3326 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless
20 connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300, as well as a radio interface 3327 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 3370 with a UE 3330 located in a coverage area (not shown) served by the base station 3320. The communication interface 3326 may be configured to facilitate a connection 3360 to the host computer 3310. The connection 3360 may be
25 direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in Figure 10) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, the hardware 3325 of the base station 3320 further includes processing circuitry 3328, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable
30 gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The base station 3320 further has software 3321 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.
The communication system 3300 further includes the UE 3330 already referred to.
Its hardware 3335 may include a radio interface 3337 configured to set up and maintain a
35 wireless connection 3370 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 3330 is currently located. The hardware 3335 of the UE 3330 further includes processing circuitry 3338, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The UE 3330 further comprises software 3331,
5 which is stored in or accessible by the UE 3330 and executable by the processing circuitry 3338. The software 3331 includes a client application 3332. The client application 3332 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 3330, with the support of the host computer 3310. In the host computer 3310, an executing host application 3312 may communicate with the executing client application 3332 via the OTT
10 connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the user, the client application 3332 may receive request data from the host application 3312 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 3350 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 3332 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.
15 It is noted that the host computer 3310, base station 3320 and UE 3330 illustrated in Figure 10 may be identical to the host computer 3230, one of the base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c and one of the UEs 3291, 3292 of Figure 9, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Figure 10 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Figure 9.
20 In Figure 10, the OTT connection 3350 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host computer 3310 and the use equipment 3330 via the base station 3320, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from the UE 3330 or from the service provider
25 operating the host computer 3310, or both. While the OTT connection 3350 is active, the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network).
The wireless connection 3370 between the UE 3330 and the base station 3320 is in
30 accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 3330 using the OTT connection 3350, in which the wireless connection 3370 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the applicable RAN effect: data rate, latency, power consumption, and thereby
35 provide benefits such as corresponding effect on the OTT service: e.g., reduced user waiting time, relaxed restriction on file size, better responsiveness, extended battery lifetime.
A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may 5 further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 between the host computer 3310 and UE 3330, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 may be implemented in the software 3311 of the host computer 3310 or in the software 3331 of the UE 3330, or both. In embodiments, 10 sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 3350 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software 3311, 3331 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT 15 connection 3350 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 3320, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 3320. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling facilitating the host computer’s 3310 measurements of 20 throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that the software 3311, 3331 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 3350 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.
Figure 11 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication 25 system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as the network node 110, and a UE such as the wireless terminal 120, which may be those described with reference to Figure 10 and Figure 9. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 11 will be included in this section. In a first action 3410 of the method, the host computer provides user data. 30 In an optional subaction 3411 of the first action 3410, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In a second action 3420, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In an optional third action 3430, the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In an optional fourth action 3440, the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.
Figure 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host
5 computer, a base station such as an AR STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 9 and Figure 10. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 12 will be included in this section. In a first action 3510 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional subaction (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host
10 application. In a second action 3520, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In an optional third action 3530, the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission.
Figure 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication
15 system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 9 and Figure 10. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 13 will be included in this section. In an optional first action 3610 of the method, the UE receives input data provided by the
20 host computer. Additionally or alte atively, in an optional second action 3620, the UE provides user data. In an optional subaction 3621 of the second action 3620, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In a further optional subaction 3611 of the first action 3610, the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the
25 user data, the executed client application may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in an optional third subaction 3630, transmission of the user data to the host computer. In a fourth action 3640 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described
30 throughout this disclosure.
Figure 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 9 and Figure 10. For simplicity of the
35 present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 14 will be included in this section. In an optional first action 3710 of the method, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In an optional second action 3720, the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In a third action 3730, the host computer
5 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

Claims

1. A method performed by a wireless terminal (120), for handling Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network (100), which QoE relates
5 to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal (120), the method comprising: logging (402, 403, 404) indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, sending (407), to a network node (110), the logged indications, which logged
10 indications enable a network node to adapt any system information configuration.
2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving (401) from the network node (110), an QoE configuration, which QoE configuration, configuring the wireless terminal 120 to perform QoE related
15 measurements and to log indications related to system information.
3. The method according to any of the claims 1-2, further comprising: sending (406) to the network node (110), a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal (120) on the service provided at the application,
20 according to the QoE configuration, which measured QoE is impacted according to the logged indications.
4. The method according to any of the claims 1-3, wherein the logging (402, 403, 404) of the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the
25 QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of: logging (402) a first indication indicating a request for system information and logging (403), a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
30
5. The method according to any of the claims 1-4, wherein the logging (402, 403, 404) of the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration further comprises:
35 logging (404) a third indication indicating any one or more out of: - an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal (120), when sending to a Radio
5 Access network, RAN, request(s) for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal (120) has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has(have) been requested,
10 - an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has(have) been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
- an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an
15 Application Programming Interface, API, towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the the wireless terminal (120), of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested piece(s) of information from the UE AS,
- a time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request,
20 or other means of acquisition of information, occurred, and wherein the third indication is comprised in the the logged indications to be sent to the network node (110).
6. The method according to any of the claims 1-5, further comprising:
25 indicating (405) by a UE Access Stratum, AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal (120) a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system information, thereby enabling the application layer to log the method together with, or as part of), the QoE data.
30 7. A computer program (780) comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor (760), causes the processor (760) to perform actions according to any of the claims 1-6.
8. A carrier (790) comprising the computer program (780) of claim 7, wherein the
35 carrier (790) is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
9. A method performed by a network node (110) for handling Quality of Experience,
5 QoE in a wireless communications network (100), which QoE relates to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal (120), the method comprising: receiving (502), from the wireless terminal (120), indications logged by the wireless terminal (120), which logged indications indicate a requested system
10 information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, adapting (503) any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal (120).
10. The method according to claim 9, further comprising:
15 sending (501) a QoE configuration to the wireless terminal (120), configuring the wireless terminal (120) to perform QoE related measurements and to log indications related to system information.
11. The method according to any of the claims 9-10, further comprising:
20 receiving (504) from the wireless terminal (120), a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal (120) on the service provided at the application, which QoE is measured according to the sent QoE configuration, and which measured QoE is impacted according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal (120).
25
12. The method according to any of the claims 9-11 wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal (120) according to the QoE configuration comprises any one or more out of: a first indication indicating a request for system information and,
30 a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
13. The method according to any of the claims 9-12, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal (120) according to the QoE configuration further comprises a
35 third indication indicating any one or more out of: - an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal (120), when sending to a Radio
5 Access network, RAN, request(s) for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal (120) has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has(have) been requested,
10 - an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has(have) been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
- an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an
15 Application Programming Interface, API, towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the the wireless terminal (120), of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested piece(s) of information from the UE AS,
- a timestamp, or other time indication, indicating when an on-demand system
20 information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred.
14. A computer program (880) comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor (860), causes the processor (860) to perform actions according to any of the claims 9-13.
25
15. A carrier (890) comprising the computer program (880) of claim 14, wherein the carrier (890) is one of an electronic signal, an optical signal, an electromagnetic signal, a magnetic signal, an electric signal, a radio signal, a microwave signal, or a computer-readable storage medium.
30
16. A wireless terminal (120), configured to handle Quality of Experience, QoE, in a wireless communications network (100), which QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on the wireless terminal (120), the wireless terminal (120) is further configured to: log indications indicating a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, send to a network node (110), the logged indications, which logged indications are adapted to enable a network node to adapt any system information
5 configuration.
17. The wireless terminal (120) according to claim 16, further being configured to: receive a QoE configuration from the network node (110) configuring the wireless terminal 120 to perform QoE related measurements and to log indications
10 related to system information.
18. The wireless terminal (120) according to any of the claims 16-17, further configured to: send to the network node (110), a report relating to a QoE measured by the
15 wireless terminal (120) on the service provided at the application, according to the QoE configuration, which measured QoE is adapted to be impacted according to the logged indications.
19. The wireless terminal (120) according to any of the claims 16-18, further configured
20 to log the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE configuration by any one or more out of: logging a first indication indicating a request for system information and logging a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system
25 information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
20. The wireless terminal (120) according to any of the claims 16-19, further configured to log the indication indicating the requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, according to the QoE
30 configuration by: logging a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
- an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information.
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE
35 Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal (120), when sending to a Radio Access network, RAN, request(s) for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal (120) has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related
5 to the requested system information has(have) been requested,
- an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has(have) been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
10 - an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an Application Programming Interface, API, towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the the wireless terminal (120), of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested piece(s) of information from the UE AS,
15 - a time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request, or other means of acquisition of information, occurred, and wherein the third indication is comprised in the the logged indications to be sent to the network node (110).
20 21. The wireless terminal (120) according to any of the claims 16-20, further configured to: indicate by a UE Access Stratum, AS, to the application layer in the wireless terminal (120) a method that the UE AS has used to acquire the requested system information, thereby enabling the application layer to log the method together with,
25 or as part of, the QoE data.
22. A network node (110) configured to handle Quality of Experience, QoE in a wireless communications network (100), which QoE is adapted to relate to a service provided at an application running on a wireless terminal (120), the
30 network node (110) is further configured to: receive, from the wireless terminal (120), indications logged by the wireless terminal (120), which logged indications are adapted to indicate a requested system information and its impact on the QoE for the provided service at the application, and adapt any system information configuration based on the received indication, logged by the wireless terminal (120).
23. The network node (110) according to claim 22, further being configured to:
5 send an QoE configuration to the wireless terminal (120), configuring the wireless terminal 120_to perform QoE related measurements and to log indications related to system information.
24. The network node (110) according to any of the claims 22-23, further configured to:
10 receive from the wireless terminal (120), a report relating to a QoE measured by the wireless terminal (120) on the service provided at the application, which QoE is adapted to be measured according to the sent QoE configuration, and which measured QoE is adapted to be impacted according to the indication logged by the wireless terminal (120).
15
25. The network node (110) according to any of the claims 22-24, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal (120) according to the QoE configuration are adapted to comprise any one or more out of: a first indication indicating a request for system information and,
20 a second indication indicating impact of the logged request for system information, on the QoE for the provided service at the application.
26. The network node (110) according to any of the claims 22-25, wherein the indications logged by the wireless terminal (120) according to the QoE
25 configuration are adapted to further comprise a third indication indicating any one or more out of:
- an indication, indicating a delay in acquisition of an on-demand system information message related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating a Radio Resource Control, RRC, state of a UE
30 Access Stratum, AS, of the wireless terminal (120), when sending to a Radio Access network, RAN, request(s) for on-demand system information related to the requested system information,
- an indication, indicating whether the wireless terminal (120) has received a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related
35 to the requested system information has(have) been requested, - an indication, indicating a delay between a paging associated with a service for which on-demand system information related to the requested system information has(have) been requested and the request for an on-demand system information,
5 - an indication of a delay from the application layer’s transfer, across an Application Programming Interface, API, towards the UE Access Stratum, AS, of the the wireless terminal (120), of a request for one or more pieces of information, until the application layer receives the requested piece(s) of information from the UE AS,
10 - a time indication, indicating when an on-demand system information request or other means of acquisition of information occurred.
PCT/SE2022/050825 2021-09-21 2022-09-20 Wireless terminal, network node and methods in a wireless communications network WO2023048617A1 (en)

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