WO2023102947A1

WO2023102947A1 - Network slice remapping

Info

Publication number: WO2023102947A1
Application number: PCT/CN2021/137265
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ömer BULAKCI; Malgorzata Tomala; Anna Pantelidou; Konstantinos Samdanis; Jing PING; Ahmad AWADA; Muhammad NASEER-UL-ISLAM
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd.; Nokia Solutions And Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2021-12-10
Filing date: 2021-12-10
Publication date: 2023-06-15

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, devices, apparatuses, and computer readable medium for network slice remapping. The method comprises: obtaining, at a first device, network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second devices; generating, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second devices; and transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second devices for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping. In this way, a centralized Management Data Analytics Service, MDAS, based mechanism is proved for network slice remapping.

Description

NETWORK SLICE REMAPPING

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to devices, methods, apparatus and computer readable storage media of network slice remapping.

BACKGROUND

Network slicing is one of the key 5G features to support different services using the same underlying mobile network infrastructure. Network slices may vary, introducing different service requirements, such as, Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) , enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) , etc., and distinct tenants to consume such services.

A network slice is uniquely identified via Single-Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (S-NSSAI) . According to the current specifications, a UE is allowed to be simultaneously connected and served by at most eight network slices corresponding to eight S-NSSAIs. On the other hand, each cell may support tens or even hundreds of S-NSSAIs. According to the current specifications, a tracking area (TA) may support up to 1024 network slices. In a case where a UE is handed over to a cell where an ongoing slice is not supported, or the ongoing slice in the current cell is overloaded in the target cell, the UE’s ongoing slice may need to be remapped to a different slice, so as to ensure the service continuity. Therefore, a network slice remapping procedure is needed.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for network slice remapping.

In a first aspect, there is provided a first device. The first device comprises: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program codes. The at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device to: obtain network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second devices; generate, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second devices; and transmit the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second devices for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.

In a second aspect, there is provided a second device. The second device comprises: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program codes. The at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device to: transmit, to a first device, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second device; receive, from the first device, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second devices; and determine, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In a third aspect, there is provided a second device. The second device comprises: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program codes. The at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device to: in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, select a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second device based on network slice related information; and perform the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: obtaining, at a first device, network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second devices; generating, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second devices; and transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second devices for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: transmitting, at a second device and to the first device, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second device; receiving, from a first device, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second devices; and determining, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a method. The method comprises: in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, selecting, at a second device, a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second device based on network slice related information; and performing the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises: means for obtaining network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second apparatuses; means for generating, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second apparatuses; and means for transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second apparatuses for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus; means for receiving, from a first apparatus, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second apparatuses; and means for determining, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a second apparatus. The second apparatus comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, selecting a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus based on network slice related information; and means for performing the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium comprises program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform the method according to the fourth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium comprises program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform the method according to the fifth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium. The non-transitory computer readable medium comprises program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform the method according to the sixth aspect

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

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:

FIGs. 1A to 1D illustrate example network slice scenarios;

FIG. 2 illustrates example network slice remapping policies;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example network environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example MDAS architecture according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows a signaling chart illustrating a network slice remapping procedure according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for network slice remapping according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for network slice remapping according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for network slice remapping according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with example embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitation as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment, ” “an embodiment, ” “an example embodiment, ” and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

As used in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Non-terrestrial network (NTN) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) , a further sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a NR Next Generation NodeB (gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. The network device is allowed to be defined as part of a gNB such as for example in CU/DU split in which case the network device is defined to be either a gNB-CU or a gNB-DU. A node may be considered to be an entity that may comprise one or more network functions (NFs) . An NF may comprise one or more microservices. Microservices could be understood as more modular services (as compared with services produced/provided by NFs) that come together to provide a meaningful service/application. In this scope, one can deploy and scale the small modules flexibly (e.g., within a NF or between various NFs) . For example, an NF can provide one or more services, and a microservice can represent small modules that make up the services in the NF. Moreover, microservices can communicate with each other, e.g., statelessly.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (loT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

The S-NSSAI may include both Slice Service Type (SST) and Slice Differentiator (SD) field with a total length of 32 bits or include only SST field part in which case the length of S-NSSAI is 8 bits only. The SST field may have either standardized values or non-standardized values. According to the current specifications, values 0 to 127 belong to the standardized SST range. For instance, SST value of 1 may indicate that the slice is suitable for handling of 5G eMBB, and 2 may indicate that the slice is suitable for handling of URLLC, etc. The SD is operator-defined only. Moreover, neighboring gNBs exchange slice support information per TA (i.e., slices supported in a TA) over the Xn interface during Xn Set-Up and NG-RAN Node Configuration Update procedures.

According to the current specifications, a registration area (RA) is a list of Tracking Areas (TAs) that support the same network slices from a UE perspective. When registering to the network, the UE can indicate the network slices to which it might need to access, i.e., requested S-NSSAIs. The core network (CN) analyses the UE’s profile and subscription data to verify the list of network slices that the UE can actually have access to. As a result, CN sends a list of “allowed slices” , i.e., allowed NSSAI, to the UE. The list of allowed slices may be different or only a subset of the slices requested by the UE in the registration process. The reason could be that the UE does not have access to a specific slice or the slice is not supported in the current location or TA in which the registration request was initiated. If the allowed slices contain at least one slice, then the CN also configures a RA for the UE. This RA contains a list of TAs in which all the allowed slices of the UE are supported. CN is aware of the current TA of the UE from the registration request and also knows the slices supported in neighboring TAs. Based on this information, the CN can configure the list of TAs for the UE in which the slice support is homogenous for the requesting UE. Once the UE goes outside of the TAs in the RA, it needs to perform a Registration Area Update procedure, e.g., Mobility Registration Update procedure, and thereby the CN re-evaluates the slices requested by the UE to configure a new RA.

It should be noted that the CN knows the location of an idle UE in RM-REGISTERED state in terms of an RA. In case of a network-originated service request, the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) pages the gNBs belonging to the TAs of the RA. The AMF may apply different paging policies, for example, paging only a part of the RA considering the last TA where the UE made the RA update procedure. Thus, there is a trade-off between a size of RA and paging overhead and the RA update frequency. In other words, a large size of RA may imply fewer RA updates but more paging signaling, whereas a small size of RA may imply more RA updates but less paging signaling. In addition, with the smaller size of RA, the UE could be reached faster and thus might be preferred for certain services with delay constraints.

It is likely that a UE belonging to a network slice with very large coverage areas might be configured with a RA that does not include all the TAs in which that slice is supported but only a limited set of TAs based on the current TA of the UE. Therefore, network slice remapping may occur along with the UE’s mobility. Additionally, or alternatively, in a case that the ongoing slice is overloaded, the UE’s current slice may be remapped to the other one. This can be the case in the current cell of the UE, where the UE’s current ongoing slice gets overloaded, or when the UE is handed over from the current cell to the target cell, where the UE’s current ongoing slice is overloaded in the target cell.

FIGs. 1A and 1B exemplarily illustrate the network slice remapping due to the slice not supported in a target cell. In the network slice remapping scenario 101, a source NG-RAN node 110 is contained in RA1 that supports the slice 1 used by the UE 130, and a neighboring NG-RAN node, i.e., a target NG-RAN node 120 is contained in RA2 that supports a different slice 2. When the UE 130 is moving from coverage of the source NG-RAN 110 to coverage of the target NG-RAN node 120, since the ongoing slice 1 is not supported in RA2, the ongoing slice 1 of the UE 130 is configured to remap to the slice 2. Without slice remapping, the service (s) provided to the UE 130 would be interrupted. In the network slice remapping scenario 102 shown in FIG. 1B, when the UE 130 moves back to the coverage of the original NG-RAN node 110, the slice 2 is remapped to the slice 1 for providing the service as requested by the UE 130.

FIGs. 1C and 1D exemplarily illustrate the network slice remapping due to a shortage of slice resources. In the network slice remapping scenario 103 shown in FIG. 1C, the source NG-RAN node 110 and the target NG-RAN node 120 are contained in the same RA1 that supports the slice 1 for providing the service requested by the UE 130. Since the ongoing slice 1 provided by the target NG-RAN node 110 is with high load, to guarantee the quality of service, the ongoing slice of the UE 130 can be configured to remap to a slice with low load. In the network slice remapping scenario 104 shown in FIG. 1D, the source NG-RAN node 110 and the target NG-RAN node 120 are respectively contained in RA1 and RA2, and both are supporting the slice 1 for providing the service requested by the UE 130. The ongoing slice 1 provided by the target NG-RAN node 120 is with high load, and the ongoing slice of UE 130 can be configured to remap to a slice with low load provided by the target NG-RAN node 120. In these cases of slice resource shortage, the remapping can be in the form of remapping traffic of the ongoing slice to the resource pool used by other slice (s) or slice group (s) . Such remapping can be aligned with the radio resource management (RRM) policy model provided by Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM) /network management system (NMS) . Once the slice resource shortage is over, remapping can be reversed, i.e., remapping of remapped slice to the initial ongoing slice.

Traditionally, the slice remapping can be performed in a static manner, and the slice remapping can be assigned by the Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM) /network management system (NMS) for each access node, e.g., gNB. In particular, the slice remapping can be performed based on various granularities, for example, at a slice level, at a protocol data unit (PDU) level, or at a UE level, which may be defined by a remapping policy. FIG. 2 illustrates example network slice remapping policies. According to the network slice remapping policy per slice 201, the network slice remapping policy can be configured by the OAM. In another example case, the slice remapping policy may be provided by the core network (CN) , e.g., by using the node-specific setup or update procedure. According to the network slice remapping policy per UE 202, slice remapping options can be different for different UEs, i.e., the choice of possible re-mapped slices for a given slice is a general policy for the UE. In this case, the signaling via the CN can still be based on PDU session configurations. In a further case, network slice remapping policy 203 can be provided per PDU session 203, where the signaling can be part of handover procedures, e.g., NG handover request and/or Xn handover request, or PDU session setup, e.g., initial context setup request message.

With the increasing number of network slices, the static slice remapping policy can be inefficient and difficult to be optimized and updated. For example, the traffic profiles or resource utilization of different network slices may change after the initial remapping policy configuration. Additionally, the network may observe more service degradation compared to original estimates after the application of initial re-mapping policies. For these cases, the static slice remapping policy cannot match the dynamic network environment.

In order to solve the above and other potential problems, embodiments of the present disclosure provide an enhanced slice remapping mechanism. The enhanced slice remapping mechanism leverages automation and data analytics to define slice remapping policies. In addition, feedback information collected from gNBs can be used for optimizing and updating the slice remapping policy. As such, the slice remapping policy can be dynamically adjusted to match the real-time network environment.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example network environment 300 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The network environment 300 includes a management data analytics service (MDAS) architecture that may include a domain MDAS producer 311, a cross-domain MDAS producer 312 or a domain MDAS consumer, a cross-domain MDAS consumer. The network environment 300 may further include a plurality of gNBs 321 to 323 (which may be collectively referred to as the gNB 320 hereinafter) , and at least one terminal device, i.e., the UE 330.

As shown in FIG. 3, the gNB 321 provides a cell 4 that supports

slices

1, 3, 4 and 7. The gNB 322 provides cells 1 to 3 that support slices 1 and 2. The gNB 323 provides a cell 5 that supports 1, 5, 6, and 7. As shown, from the UE 330 perspective, the cell 4 is contained in RA1, cells 1 to 3 are contained in RA2, and the cell 5 is contained in RA3. It should be understood that the gNB is given as one of various examples of network devices in RAN, and any other network devices other than gNB are also suitable for the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The plurality of gNBs 321 to 323 may communicate slice support information with each other via Xn interface. In addition, the plurality of gNBs 321 to 323 may transmit slice remapping related information to the domain MDAS producer 311, including but not limited to, slice-based load information, load change information of network slices due to network slice remapping, a list of cells available for hand over (intra-frequency and/or inter-frequency cells) , a plurality of network slices configured on the list of cells, throughput information of the plurality of network slices, a mobility handover event from a cell where one of the plurality of network slices is not supported or overloaded, a mobility handover request from a cell where one of the plurality of network slices fails (i.e., is not acknowledged/admitted) , historical information of the plurality of network slices, service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices, and so on.

In the network environment 300, the MDAS is used for providing data analytics for management purposes based on data related to different types of network functions or network entities, e.g., data reported from the gNBs 321 to 323 and other CN functions. For example, the MDAS can provide network slice specific analytics, such as, feasibility check, slice throughput, etc. The MDAS producer may be deployed as domain-specific (e.g., RAN or CN) MDAS producer or as cross-domain MDAS producer.

Herein, MDAS may also be referred to as management data analytics (MDA) management service (MnS) .

FIG. 4 illustrates the example MDAS architecture 400 according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the MDAS architecture 400 is given for illustrative purpose without suggesting any limitations. For example, the MDAS architecture 400 can be implemented with additional devices or functions or interfaces not shown and/or omitting or replacing some of the devices or functions.

As shown in FIG. 4, a CN domain MDAS producer 414 (may be referred to as CN domain MDA MnS producer) may consume the service in CN domain 413 to provide analytics data for management purpose. For example, the services in CN domain 413 may be provided by Network Data Analytics Function (NWDAF) and other 5G core network (5GC) NFs. The RAN domain MDAS producer 311 (may be referred to as RAN domain MDA MnS producer) may consume the services in the RAN domain, and provide analytics data for management purpose. For example, the service in RAN domain may be provided by the gNB 320. The RAN domain MDAS producer 311 may generate and transmit a MDAS report to a domain MDAS consumer. Any authorized management service (MnS) consumers may get access to management data analytics (MDA) reports by interacting with MDAS producers (may be referred to as MDA MnS producers) .

The cross-domain MDAS producer 312 (may be referred to as cross-domain MDA MnS producer) may act as the domain MDAS consumer (may be referred to as domain MDA MnS consumer) and consume the MDAS provided by the domain specific MDAS producer including the CN domain MDAS producer 414 and the RAN domain MDAS producer 311. The cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may consume MnS provided by RAN and/or CN domains, and may produce MDA MnS that may be consumed by cross-domain MDA MnS consumer (s) . For example, based on the MDAS report, the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may determine and provide a slice remapping policy to the gNB 320. In addition to the slice remapping policy, the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may determine and provide a remapping impact factor associated with network slice remapping to the gNB 320. According to some example embodiments, the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may determine and provide a slice remapping policy to the CN, where the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may determine and provide a remapping impact factor associated with network slice remapping. With the remapping impact factor, the gNB 320 may be aware of how to select from multiple network slices that are available for remapping, and/or determine how many and which users will get redirection information via RRC. A cross-domain MDAS consumer 415 may consume the MDAS produced by the cross-domain MDAS producer 312.

The gNB 320 may provide the slice remapping policy and/or the remapping impact factor over XnAP update procedures, e.g., to be used for mobility decisions, and over NGAP procedures to inform the CN. The gNB 320 may use the slice remapping policy and the slice remapping factor to perform RRC procedures for redirecting the terminal devices (e.g., the UE 330) and/or to determine mobility decisions accordingly.

In some example embodiments, the slice remapping policy may be determined by the gNBs 321 to 323. For example, the gNBs 321 to 323 may determine the slice remapping policy based on predicted load and mobility from neighbor cells and/or local data and information. Additionally, to facilitate the determination of the slice remapping policy, the gNBs 321 to 323 may utilize machine learning (ML) algorithms and artificial intelligence technologies.

It should be also understood that the numbers of nodes, devices, entities and NFs as shown in FIGs. 3 and 4 are given only for illustrative purpose without suggesting any limitations. For example, the network environment 300 may include any suitable number of terminal devices and network devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

The communications in the network environment 300 may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, LTE, LTE-evolution, LTE-advanced (LTE-A) , wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) , code division multiple access (CDMA) and global system for mobile communications (GSM) and the like. Furthermore, the communications may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) , a future sixth generation (6G) and/or any further communication protocols.

Principle and implementations of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 shows a signaling chart illustrating a network slice remapping procedure 500 according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the process 500 will be described with reference to FIGs. 3 and 4. The process 500 may involve the domain MDAS producer 311, the gNB 320, and cross-domain MDAS producer 312. The gNB 320 may be one or more of the gNBs 321 to 323.

In the slice remapping procedure 500, the gNB 320 provides 505 network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices, such as, network slices 1 to 7. The network slice related information may include, but not limited to:

● Load information per cell and/or per slice, which may include, for example, loads of slices in each cell, the load change of a slice due to remapped sessions (e.g., an increase or a decrease of loads) , and so on;

● A list of target cells that may be deployed on different frequencies, and are possible to serve the UE 130 that was planned to be handed over to a further target cell, i.e., all the cells that are in the same frequency bands and thus have similar measurements are actually possible cells for handover;

● Throughput per cell, per slice, or per UE;

● Slice related mobility, which may include i) the number of handover when a target slice rejects PDU sessions and could not re-map to another slice, because, e.g., no re-mapping policy is available at target cell or candidate slice (s) for remapping is overloaded; and ii) the number of handover when the target cell applied remapping also including the exact slice ID of the remapped slice, in case there were multiple slice re-mapping options;

● Service level agreement (SLA) information of the plurality of network slices;

In some example embodiments, the collected information can be for slice groups. Slice groups may be associated with slice group IDs.

In some example embodiments, slice remapping policies can also be provided for slice groups.

In some example embodiments, the domain MDAS producer 311 may obtain historical information or data associated with slice remapping from a corresponding network or from a corresponding management entity that deals with storage of historical data.

The domain MDAS producer 311 generates 510, based on the network slice related information, a MDAS report. The domain MDAS producer 311 then transmits 515 the MDAS report to the cross-domain MDAS producer 312.

As described above, the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may act as the domain MDAS consumer. The cross-domain MDAS producer 312 generates 520 a slice remapping policy based on the MDAS report received from the domain MDAS producer 311. Additionally, in generating the slice remapping policy, the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 may further consider the SLA information and CN remapping support information which may be received from CN-Domain MDAS producer 414.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may indicate a remapping relation of a current network slice for at least one terminal device (e.g., the UE 330) and the target network slice to remap to. By way of example, the slice remapping policy may indicate remapping a slice ID X to at least one other slice ID Y. By way of example, the slice remapping policy may indicate remapping a slice group ID A to at least one other slice group ID B.

In some example embodiments, each of the at least one slice remapping policy may be associated with a corresponding target cell. By way of example, a first slice remapping policy may be configured to be specific to a target cell that is selected by another network node (e.g., a source node of handover in a case of L3 handover) , i.e., different slice remapping policies may be defined for different target cells.

In some example embodiments, each of the at least one slice remapping policy may be associated with a corresponding group of terminal devices. By way of example, a first slice remapping policy may be configured to be specific to a group of UEs having, for instance, premium subscriptions.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may indicate a ranking or prioritization of target cells. In some other embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may indicate that at least one slice group is associated with a slice group ID (s) . In these cases, the UE may be configured with at least one slice group that is associated with a slice group ID.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy is valid in a corresponding time period. For example, a validity timer may be configured for defining the time period. The validity timer may be in the form of one or more of the following: an absolute time interval, a time interval relative to a reference time, a periodic time interval and so on.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may indicate that in selecting a target cell for a terminal device configured with at least one target slice ID, a first cell of a group of candidate target cells is prioritized over a rest of the group of candidate target cells.

The cross-domain MDAS producer 312 transmits 525 the slice remapping policy to the gNB 320. In some example embodiments, the slice remapping policy is transmitted along with at least one remapping impact factor for determining at least one terminal device associated with the network slice remapping procedure. The remapping factor may be identified in the phase of SLA definition between the slice customer and the slice provider.

For example, the remapping impact factor may include a degradation factor that indicates an amount of service degradation for a slice due to network slice remapping. Additionally, or alternatively, the remapping impact factor may include an amplification factor that indicates an amount of service performance increase for a slice due to network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the remapping impact factor may be determined based on at least one of the following:

● resources allocated to the plurality of network slices and/or slice groups, e.g., resource pools

● at least one quality of service (QoS) parameter associated with the plurality of network slices and/or slice groups,

● at least one quality of experience (QoE) parameter associated with the plurality of network slices and/or slice groups,

● SLA information of the plurality of network slices,

● load information of the plurality of network slices and/or slice groups,

● an actual degradation factor that indicates actual service degradation experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping, and

● an actual amplification factor that indicates actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping.

The degradation factor may be used for making mobility decisions, for example, a target cell X may be preferred over a target cell Y if the radio conditions allow it. Thus, the degradation factor could be also used for conditional handover (CHO) preparations.

The degradation factor may be a scaling factor, for example, assuming a quantification based on the resources allocated to a slice or a slice group, which could be an amount of dedicated resources from RAN, associated 5QIs with the SLAs from CN, etc. The degradation factor could be a rough indicator, e.g., a minor degradation, a severe degradation and so on.

The degradation factor may depend on the time and space due to SLA. Here, SLA may be broken down to service/resource requirement of each of CN domain and RAN domain to enable analytics per domain.

The actual experienced degradation factor by different remapped UEs may be given as feedback from the gNB 320 to the MDAS. The degradation factor may be considered as the reward for AI/ML algorithms utilized in the cross-domain MDAS producer 312. In addition, the feedback on the actual experienced degradation factor may trigger re-plan or redesign of TAI/cell and S-NSSAI remapping policies or the slice coverage areas.

The amplification factor may be used for remapping the ongoing slice to a premium slice. The service/slice continuity may be also taken into consideration when determining the target slice. In addition, the slice remapping to a given slice may be allowed based on a threshold related to the slice load.

For both of the degradation factor and the amplification factor, the network may also provide a radio measurement margin to the gNB 320. In particular, in a case where more than one cell support a given target slice, and if the radio measurement for a cell is within the radio measurement margin, the gNB 320 may prefer the second-best cell over the best cell.

In some example embodiments, the slice remapping policy may indicate the remapping shall be whether RAN-based or CN-based.

In the above example embodiments, the slice remapping policy is generated by the cross-domain MDAS producer 312. Alternatively, in some other embodiments, the slice remapping policy may be generated by the domain MDAS producer 311. By way of example, the domain MDAS producer 311 may generate the slice remapping policy based on the network slice related information obtained at 505, and the RAN-domain service-level specification (SLS) (e.g., RANSliceProfile) which may be broken down from the SLA information. The domain MDAS producer 311 may then provide the slice remapping policy to the gNB 320 along with the at least one remapping impact factor.

Based on the slice remapping policy and selectively the remapping impact factor, the gNB 320 performs 530 RRC procedures for redirecting the UE 330 accordingly. By way of example, the gNB 320 may use the slice remapping policy for determining an appropriate target cell. By way of another example, based on the slice/service remapping factor, if an ongoing slice is associated with a degradation rate, the gNB 320 may determine how many UEs will get the redirection information via RRC with the same information. In addition, it may not be used as redirection information to all the UEs in a gNB’s cells.

In the handover scenario, the slice remapping procedure may be performed by the source gNB before handover. Alternatively, the slice remapping procedure may be performed by the target gNB after handover. In some example embodiments, the slice remapping procedure may be performed during the handover.

According to the example embodiments, cross-domain MDAS producer and/or domain MDAS producer may obtain slice remapping information from other analytics functions, e.g., NWDAF and RAN data analytics function.

According to the example embodiments, cross-domain MDAS producer and/or domain MDAS producer may obtain slice remapping information from ORAN RAN intelligent controller (RIC) , e.g., real time RIC and non-real time RIC.

According to the example embodiments, there is provided an enhanced network slice remapping mechanism. The proposed remapping mechanism leverages the MDAS architecture to enable data analytics. As such, the enhanced network slice remapping mechanism can dynamically generate and update the slice remapping policies, such that more effective remapping can be attained. In addition, the mobility decision can be optimized with the adjusted parameters.

However, in alternative embodiments, the slice remapping policies may be determined by the gNB 320, and the slice remapping policies may include multiple options for the target slice.

As an example of various implementations, a target gNB, for example, the gNB 321 may determine a target slice to be used for the slice remapping based on a predicted load and a predicted mobility from neighbor cells. For example, the predicted load and the predicted mobility may be provided by means of analytics, e.g., by using MDAS.

In some example embodiments, the OAM may provide a set of candidate network slices for remapping to the target gNB. The set of candidate network slices may be included in remapping tables. The target gNB may obtain predicted mobility events for a given network slice from the neighbor cells. For example, the predicted mobility events may be inferred at the neighbor cells and/or in the target cell. The target gNB may use the information in RRC configuration send to the users connected to, in redirections or handover procedures. Based on these pieces of information, the target network slice is determined for an incoming UE.

As mentioned above, the slice remapping may be performed in the target cell or in the source cell. In a case that the slice remapping is performed in the source cell, the target cell may inform the source cell on the determined slice remapping.

As another example of various implementations, the target gNB may determine the target network slice to be remapped based on available local information. Similarly, the OAM may provide the set of candidate network slices that is available for remapping, i.e., the list of remappable slices. Additionally or alternatively, the OAM may provide a blacklist of network slices that shall not be remapped onto. The target gNB may determine a slice remapping configuration from the supported slices based on information obtained from neighbor cells as well as the available local information. Furthermore, the target gNB may inform CN and the OAM on the applied remapping strategy.

In both example implementations, the information for determining the target network slice may also be obtained from other network domains, for example, registration area (RA) information from CN, or ORAN, e.g., prediction analytics on mobility or load from near-realtime RIC.

In some example embodiments, the slice support of the CN may also be considered by the gNB 320. In particular, the target gNB may prioritize the network slices that are supported by the connected AMF and the load. The slice remapping information may be used by the OAM to decide whether a network slice shall be deployed in a gNB instead of remapping, which is more like a temporary solution and requires change of network slices for the ongoing services of the UE.

According to the example embodiments, the gNB is capable of making remapping decision based on current status of the network slices, locally available data, information obtained from other network domains, and recommendations provided by an OAM system. Thus, more resource-efficient operations can be attained as compared with static remapping lists.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example method 600 for network slice remapping according to example embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 600 can be implemented at a first device, which may be, for example, the domain MDAS procedure 311 or the cross-domain MDAS producer 312 shown in FIGs. 3 and 4. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described with reference to FIGs. 3 and 4. It is to be understood that method 600 may further include additional blocks not shown and/or omit some shown blocks, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At 610, the first device obtains network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second devices. The second devices may be network devices, for example, the gNBs 321 to 323.

At 620, the first device generates, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second devices.

At 630, the first device transmits the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second devices for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the first device may receive the network slice related information from the plurality of second devices. In this case, the first device may be a domain device that supports MDAS producer capabilities, for example, the domain MDAS producer 311.

In the above embodiments, the first device may generate the at least one slice remapping policy further based on SLA information of the plurality of network slices.

In some example embodiments, the first device may receive, from a third device that supports the MDAS, a MDA report or notification that includes the network slice related information. In this case, the first device may be the domain MDAS consumer or the cross-domain MDAS producer 312, and the third device may be a device that supports domain MDAS producer capabilities, for example, the domain MDAS producer 311.

In some example embodiments, the network slice related information may comprise at least one of the following:

● load information comprising loads of the plurality of network slices,

● a load change of the plurality of network slices due to network slice remapping,

● a list of cells available for at least one terminal device to hand over to, the plurality of network slices being configured on the list of cells,

● throughput information of the plurality of network slices,

● a mobility event from a cell where one of the plurality of network slices is not supported or overloaded,

● a mobility handover request from a cell where one of the plurality of network slices fails,

● historical information of the plurality of network slices, and

● SLA information of the plurality of network slices.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may indicate a remapping relation of a current network slice for at least one terminal device and the target network slice to remap to.

In some example embodiments, each of the at least one slice remapping policy may be associated with a corresponding target cell.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may be valid in a corresponding time period. The time period may be defined by a validation timer that is in the form of one or more of an absolute time interval; a time interval relative to a reference time; a periodic time interval and so on.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may be transmitted along with a remapping impact factor associated with network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the remapping impact factor may include at least one of the following:

● a degradation factor indicating an amount of service degradation for a slice due to network slice remapping, and

● an amplification factor indicating an amount of service performance increase for a slice due to network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the remapping impact factor may be determined based on at least one of the following

● resources allocated to the plurality of network slices,

● at least one quality of service parameter associated with the plurality of network slices,

● at least one quality of experience parameter associated with the plurality of network slices,

● service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices,

● load information of the plurality of network slices,

● an actual degradation factor indicating the actual service degradation experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping, and

● an actual amplification factor indicating the actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the first device may include a domain device that supports MDAS, for example, the domain MDAS producer 311 and a management service (MnS) consumer, and the plurality of second devices may be network devices serving at least one terminal device.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for network slice remapping according to example embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 700 can be implemented by a second device which may be, for example, any of the gNBs 321 to 323 shown in FIGs. 3 and 4. It is to be understood that method 700 may further include additional blocks not shown and/or omit some shown blocks, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At 710, the second device transmits, to a first device, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second device.

At 720, the second device receives, from a first device, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second devices.

At 730, the second device determines, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the second device may perform the network slice remapping for the at least one terminal device by remapping from a current network slice to the target network slice,

In some example embodiments, the first device may be the domain MDAS producer 311.

In some example embodiments, the first device may comprise one of the domain MDAS consumer and the cross-domain MDAS producer 312.

● load information comprising loads of the at least one network slice,

● a load change of the at least one network slice due to the network slice remapping, which includes an increase or a decrease of load,

● at least one cell available for at least one terminal device to hand over to, the at least one network slice being configured on the at least one cell,

● throughput information of the at least one cell,

● mobility information of the at least one network slice, and

● service level agreement, SLA, information of the at least one network slice.

In some example embodiments, mobility information may comprise at least one of the following:

● the number of handovers when a target gNB could not apply slice remapping; for example, the number of handover when a target slice rejects PDU sessions and could not re-map to another slice, because no re-mapping policy is available at target slice or candidate slice (s) for remapping is overloaded, and

● the number of handovers when a target cell applied remapping also including a slice ID of the remapped slice. ; for example, the number of handover when the target cell applied remapping also includes the exact slice ID of the remapped slice, in case there were multiple slice re-mapping options.

In some example embodiments, each of the at least one slice remapping policy may be associated with a corresponding group of terminal devices.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy may be received along with a remapping impact factor for determining the at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the remapping impact factor may comprise at least one of the following:

In some example embodiments, the second device may determine an actual degradation factor indicating actual service degradation experienced by the at least one terminal device due to the network slice remapping. The second device may also determine an actual amplification factor indicating an actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping. The second device may then transmit the actual degradation factor and/or the actual amplification factor to the first device for adjusting the respective factor.

In some example embodiments, if a first network slice provided by the second device is overloaded, the second device may determin2 the at least one terminal device to be remapped from the first network slice based on the remapping impact factor. The second device may then determine the target network slice for the at least terminal device based on the at least one slice remapping policy.

In some example embodiments, the second device may transmit the at least one slice remapping policy to at least another second device in the plurality of second devices.

In some example embodiments, if at least one terminal device is to be handed over from a source cell of the second device, the second device may determine the target network slice based on the current network slice of the at least one terminal device and the at least one slice remapping policy.

In some example embodiments, the first device may comprise the domain MDAS producer 311 and the MnS consumer, and the plurality of second devices may comprise network devices serving the at least one terminal device.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an example method for network slice remapping according to example embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 800 can be implemented at a second device, which may be, for example, any of the gNB 321 to 323 shown in FIGs. 3 and 4. For the purpose of discussion, the method 800 will be described with reference to FIGs. 3 and 4. It is to be understood that method 800 may further include additional blocks not shown and/or omit some shown blocks, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At 810, the second device may determine whether a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice. If so, at 820, the second device selects a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second device based on network slice related information.

At 830, the second device performs the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the second device may receive, from an operation administration and maintenance, OAM, device, the network slice related information indicating at least one of a first set of network slices available for remapping and a second set of network slice unavailable for remapping.

In some example embodiments, the network slice related information may be stored locally at the second device.

In some example embodiments, the second device may receive information about mobility events and load information of network slices provided by at least one neighbor cell of the second device. The second device may determine the network slice remapping to be performed based on the information about mobility events and load information.

In some example embodiments, the second device may transmit, to a source cell providing the first network slice, an indication of the network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the second device may transmit, to a core network device, an indication of a slice remapping policy applied by the second device for selecting the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the second device may transmit, to an operation administration and maintenance, OAM, device, an indication of a slice remapping policy applied by the second device for selecting the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the second device may receive, from the OAM device, a message indicating an update of the at least one network slice provided by the second device based on the indication of a slice remapping policy.

In some example embodiments, the second device may transmit, redirection information, to at least one terminal device configured with the first network slice.

In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, the first device) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises: means for obtaining network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second apparatuses; means for generating, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second apparatuses; and means for transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second apparatuses for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the means for obtaining the network slice related information comprises: means for receiving the network slice related information from the plurality of second apparatuses, wherein the first apparatus comprises a domain device that supports management data analysis service, MDAS, producer capabilities.

In some example embodiments, the generating of the at least one slice remapping policy is further based on service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices.

In some example embodiments, the means for obtaining the network slice related information comprises: means for receiving, from a third apparatus that supports a management data analytics service, MDAS, a MDA report or notification comprising the network slice related information, wherein the first apparatus comprises one of a domain MDAS consumer and a cross-domain MDAS producer, and the third apparatus comprises a device that supports domain MDAS producer capabilities.

In some example embodiments, the network slice related information comprises at least one of the following:

● load information comprising loads of the plurality of network slices,

● throughput information of the plurality of network slices,

● historical information of the plurality of network slices, and

● service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy indicates a remapping relation of a current network slice for at least one terminal device and the target network slice to remap to.

In some example embodiments, each of the at least one slice remapping policy is associated with a corresponding target cell.

In some example embodiments, each of the at least one slice remapping policy is associated with a corresponding group of terminal devices.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy is valid in a corresponding time period.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy indicates that in selecting a target cell for a terminal device configured with at least one target slice ID, a first cell of a group of candidate target cells is prioritized over a rest of the group of candidate target cells.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy is transmitted along with a remapping impact factor associated with network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the remapping impact factor comprises at least one of the following:

In some example embodiments, the remapping impact factor is determined based on at least one of the following:

● resources allocated to the plurality of network slices,

● load information of the plurality of network slices,

● an actual degradation factor indicating actual service degradation experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping, and

● an actual amplification factor indicating actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a domain device that supports management data analytics service, MDAS, producer capabilities and a management service, MnS, consumer, and the plurality of second apparatuses comprise network devices serving at least one terminal device.

In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 700 (for example, the second device) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 700. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises: means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus; means for receiving, from a first apparatus, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second apparatuses; and means for determining, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for performing the network slice remapping for the at least one terminal device by remapping from a current network slice to the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the network slice related information is transmitted to a domain management device that supports MDAS producer capabilities for generating an MDA report or an MDA stream or an MDA notification.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises the domain device that supports MDAS producer capabilities.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises one of a domain device that supports MDAS consumer capabilities and a cross-domain device that supports MDAS producer capabilities.

● load information comprising loads of the at least one network slice,

● a load change of the at least one network slice due to the network slice remapping,

● throughput information of the at least one cell,

● mobility information of the at least one network slice, and

In some example embodiments, the mobility information comprises at least one of the following:

● the number of handovers when a target gNB could not apply slice remapping, and

● the number of handovers when a target cell applied remapping also including a slice ID of the remapped slice.

In some example embodiments, the at least one slice remapping policy is received along with a remapping impact factor for determining the at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises: means for determining an actual degradation factor indicating an actual service degradation experienced by the at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping; means for determining an actual amplification factor indicating an actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping; and means for transmitting the actual degradation factor and/or the actual amplification factor to the first apparatus for adjusting the respective factor.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the target network slice and the at least one terminal device comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that a first network slice provided by the second apparatus is overloaded, determining the at least one terminal device to be remapped from the first network slice based on the remapping impact factor; and means for determining the target network slice for the at least terminal device based on the at least one slice remapping policy.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprises means for transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to at least another second apparatus in the plurality of second apparatuses.

In some example embodiments, the means for determining the target network slice comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that at least one terminal device is to be handed over from a source cell of the second apparatus, determining the target network slice based on the current network slice of the at least one terminal device and the at least one slice remapping policy.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises a domain device that supports management data analytics service, MDAS, producer capabilities and a management service, MnS, consumer, and the plurality of second apparatuses comprise network devices serving the at least one terminal device.

In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 800 (for example, the second device) may comprise means for performing the respective steps of the method 800. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises: means for in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, selecting a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus based on network slice related information; and means for performing the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for receiving, from an operation administration and maintenance, OAM, device, the network slice related information indicating at least one of a first set of network slices available for remapping and a second set of network slice unavailable for remapping.

In some example embodiments, the network slice related information is stored locally at the second apparatus.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for receiving information about mobility events and load information of network slices provided by at least one neighbor cell of the second apparatus; and means for determining the network slice remapping to be performed based on the information about mobility events and load information.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for transmitting, to a source cell providing the first network slice, an indication of the network slice remapping.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for transmitting, to a core network device, an indication of a slice remapping policy applied by the second apparatus for selecting the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for transmitting, to an operation administration and maintenance, OAM, device, an indication of a slice remapping policy applied by the second apparatus for selecting the target network slice.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for receiving, from the OAM device, a message indicating an update of the at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus based on the indication of a slice remapping policy.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus further comprise means for transmitting, redirection information, to at least one terminal device configured with the first network slice.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a device 900 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 900 may be provided to implement the communication device, for example, the domain MDAS producer 311, cross-domain MDAS producer 312, or the gNB 321 as shown in FIG. 3. As shown, the device 900 includes one or more processors 910, one or more memories 920 coupled to the processor 910, and one or more transmitters and/or receivers (TX/RX) 940 coupled to the processor 910.

The TX/RX 940 may be configured for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 940 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements.

The processor 910 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 900 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The memory 920 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 924, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage media. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 922 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 930 includes computer executable instructions that may be executed by the associated processor 910. The program 930 may be stored in the ROM 924. The processor 910 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 930 into the RAM 922.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 830 so that the device 900 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 5. The embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some embodiments, the program 930 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 900 (such as in the memory 920) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 900. The device 900 may load the program 930 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 922 for execution. The computer readable medium may include any types of tangible non-volatile storage, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. FIG. 9 shows an example of the computer readable medium 1000 in form of CD or DVD. The computer readable medium has the program 930 stored thereon.

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

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the

methods

600, 700 and 800 as described above with reference to FIGs. 6 to 8. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

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

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program codes or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, device or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, device, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

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

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

Claims

A first device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program codes;

the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device at least to:

obtain network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second devices;

generate, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second devices; and

transmit the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second devices for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.
The first device of Claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device to obtain the network slice related information by:

receiving the network slice related information from the plurality of second devices, wherein the first device comprises a domain device that supports management data analytics service, MDAS, producer capabilities.
The first device of Claim 2, wherein the generating of the at least one slice remapping policy is further based on service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the first device to obtain the network slice related information by:

receiving, from a third device that supports a management data analytics service, MDAS, a MDA report or notification comprising the network slice related information, wherein the first device comprises one of a domain MDAS consumer and a cross-domain MDAS producer, and the third device comprises a device that supports domain MDAS producer capabilities.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the network slice related information comprises at least one of the following:

load information comprising loads of the plurality of network slices,

a load change of the plurality of network slices due to network slice remapping,

a list of cells available for at least one terminal device to hand over to, the plurality of network slices being configured on the list of cells,

throughput information of the plurality of network slices,

a mobility event from a cell where one of the plurality of network slices is not supported or overloaded,

a mobility handover request from a cell where one of the plurality of network slices fails,

historical information of the plurality of network slices, and

service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy indicates a remapping relation of a current network slice for at least one terminal device and the target network slice to remap to.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein each of the at least one slice remapping policy is associated with a corresponding target cell.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein each of the at least one slice remapping policy is associated with a corresponding group of terminal devices.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3 wherein the at least one slice remapping policy is valid in a corresponding time period.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy indicates that in selecting a target cell for a terminal device configured with at least one target slice ID, a first cell of a group of candidate target cells is prioritized over a rest of the group of candidate target cells.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy is transmitted along with a remapping impact factor associated with network slice remapping.
The first device of Claim 11, wherein the remapping impact factor comprises at least one of the following:

a degradation factor indicating an amount of service degradation for a slice due to network slice remapping, and

an amplification factor indicating an amount of service performance increase for a slice due to network slice remapping.
The first device of Claim 11, wherein the remapping impact factor is determined based on at least one of the following:

resources allocated to the plurality of network slices,

at least one quality of service parameter associated with the plurality of network slices,

at least one quality of experience parameter associated with the plurality of network slices,

service level agreement, SLA, information of the plurality of network slices,

load information of the plurality of network slices,

an actual degradation factor indicating actual service degradation experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping, and

an actual amplification factor indicating actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping.
The first device of any of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the first device comprises a domain device that supports management data analytics service, MDAS, producer capabilities and a management service, MnS, consumer, and the plurality of second devices comprise network devices serving at least one terminal device.
A second device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program codes;

the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device at least to:

transmit, to a first device, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second device;

receive, from the first device, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second devices; and

determine, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.
The second device of Claim 15, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

perform the network slice remapping for the at least one terminal device by remapping from a current network slice to the target network slice.
The second device of Claim 15, wherein the network slice related information is transmitted to a domain management device that supports data analytics service, MDAS, producer capabilities for generating an MDA report or an MDA stream or an MDA notification.
The second device of Claim 17, wherein the first device comprises a domain device that supports MDAS producer capabilities.
The second device of Claim 17, wherein the first device comprises one of a domain device that supports MDAS consumer capabilities and a cross-domain device that supports MDAS producer capabilities.
The second device of Claim 15, wherein the network slice related information comprises at least one of the following:

load information comprising loads of the at least one network slice,

a load change of the at least one network slice due to the network slice remapping,

at least one cell available for at least one terminal device to hand over to, the at least one network slice being configured on the at least one cell,

throughput information of the at least one cell,

mobility information of the at least one network slice, and

service level agreement, SLA, information of the at least one network slice.
The second device of Claim 20, wherein mobility information comprises at least one of the following:

the number of handovers when a target gNB could not apply slice remapping, and

the number of handovers when a target cell applied remapping also including a slice ID of the remapped slice.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy indicates a remapping relation of a current network slice for at least one terminal device and the target network slice to remap to.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein each of the at least one slice remapping policy is associated with a corresponding target cell.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein each of the at least one slice remapping policy is associated with a corresponding group of terminal devices.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy is valid in a corresponding time period.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy indicates that in selecting a target cell for a terminal device configured with at least one target slice ID, a first cell of a group of candidate target cells is prioritized over a rest of the group of candidate target cells.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the at least one slice remapping policy is received along with a remapping impact factor for determining the at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.
The second device of Claim 27, wherein the remapping impact factor comprises at least one of the following:

a degradation factor indicating an amount of service degradation for a slice due to network slice remapping, and

an amplification factor indicating an amount of service performance increase for a slice due to network slice remapping.
The second device of Claim 27, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

determine an actual degradation factor indicating an actual service degradation experienced by the at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping; and/or

determine an actual amplification factor indicating an actual service performance increase experienced by at least one terminal device due to at least one previous network slice remapping; and

transmit the actual degradation factor and/or the actual amplification factor to the first device for adjusting the respective factor.
The second device of Claim 27, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device to determine the target network slice and the at least one terminal device by:

in accordance with a determination that a first network slice provided by the second device is overloaded, determining the at least one terminal device to be remapped from the first network slice based on the remapping impact factor; and

determining the target network slice for the at least terminal device based on the at least one slice remapping policy.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

transmit the at least one slice remapping policy to at least another second device in the plurality of second devices.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device to determine the target network slice by:

in accordance with a determination that at least one terminal device is to be handed over from a source cell of the second device, determining the target network slice based on the current network slice of the at least one terminal device and the at least one slice remapping policy.
The second device of any of Claims 15 to 21, wherein the first device comprises a domain device that supports management data analytics service, MDAS, producer capabilities and a management service, MnS, consumer, and the plurality of second devices comprise network devices serving the at least one terminal device.
A second device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory including computer program codes;

the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the second device at least to:

in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, select a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second device based on network slice related information; and

perform the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

receive, from an operation administration and maintenance, OAM, device, the network slice related information indicating at least one of a first set of network slices available for remapping and a second set of network slice unavailable for remapping.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the network slice related information is stored locally at the second device.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

receive information about mobility events and load information of network slices provided by at least one neighbor cell of the second device; and

determine the network slice remapping to be performed based on the information about mobility events and load information.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

transmit, to a source cell providing the first network slice, an indication of the network slice remapping.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

transmit, to a core network device, an indication of a slice remapping policy applied by the second device for selecting the target network slice.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

transmit, to an operation administration and maintenance, OAM, device, an indication of a slice remapping policy applied by the second device for selecting the target network slice.
The second device of Claim 40, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

receive, from the OAM device, a message indicating an update of the at least one network slice provided by the second device based on the indication of a slice remapping policy.
The second device of Claim 34, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, further cause the second device to:

transmit, redirection information, to at least one terminal device configured with the first network slice.
A method comprising:

obtaining, at a first device, network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second devices;

generating, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second devices; and

transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second devices for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.
A method comprising:

transmitting, at a second device and to the first device, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second device;

receiving, from a first device, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second devices; and

determining, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.
A method comprising:

in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, selecting, at a second device, a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second device based on network slice related information; and

performing the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.
A first apparatus comprising:

means for obtaining network slice related information associated with a plurality of network slices provided by a plurality of second apparatuses;

means for generating, based on the network slice related information, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by the plurality of second apparatuses; and

means for transmitting the at least one slice remapping policy to the plurality of second apparatuses for selecting, from the plurality of network slices, a target network slice for network slice remapping.
A second apparatus comprising:

means for transmitting, to the first apparatus, network slice related information associated with at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus;

means for receiving, from a first apparatus, at least one slice remapping policy to be applied by a plurality of second apparatuses; and

means for determining, based on the at least one slice remapping policy, a target network slice to remap to and at least one terminal device associated with network slice remapping.
A second apparatus comprising:

means for in accordance with a determination that a network slice remapping is to be performed for a first network slice, selecting a target network slice from at least one network slice provided by the second apparatus based on network slice related information; and

means for performing the network slice remapping from the first network slice to the target network slice.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method of any of Claims 43 to 45.