WO2024036460A1

WO2024036460A1 - Methods and apparatuses for slice scheduling

Info

Publication number: WO2024036460A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/112620
Authority: WO
Inventors: Jie Feng JIN; Thomas Stark; Dingwen YUAN; Dereje KIFLE; Prasanna MUDLAPPA
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd.; Nokia Solutions And Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2022-08-15
Filing date: 2022-08-15
Publication date: 2024-02-22
Also published as: CN117897934A; WO2024036753A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method and apparatus for slice scheduling. A terminal device receives, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices. Then, the terminal device performs, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices. In this way, the terminal device may be directly specified the number of resources required at the slice level. Therefore, RAN slice resource quotas in uplink direction is effectively controlled.

Description

METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR SLICE SCHEDULING

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communication, and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for slice scheduling.

BACKGROUND

With development of communication technology, many of the services, e.g., enhance mobile broadband, eMBB, massive machine type communications, mMTC, ultra-reliable low latency communications, uRLLC, etc. are quite demanding on high bandwidth, low-latency and ultra-reliability. Network slicing is a technology that may support these services simultaneously with service differentiation and guaranteed performance. Network slicing accommodates several independent logical networks for different business needs and service level agreement (SLA) requirements while running on shared physical infrastructure.

However, radio access network (RAN) slice scheduling in uplink is quite complicated, there is a need to enhance slice scheduling to improve system efficiency.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, apparatus and computer readable storage medium for slice scheduling.

In a first aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device may comprise one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the terminal device to receive, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and perform, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.

In a second aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device may comprise one or more transceivers; one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the network device to determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method implemented at a terminal device. The method may comprise receiving, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and performing, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method implemented at a network device. The method may comprise determining a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and transmitting, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided an apparatus of a terminal device. The apparatus may comprise means for receiving, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and means for performing, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus of a network device. The apparatus may comprise means for determining a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and means for transmitting, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program codes, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to receive, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and perform, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device may comprise at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program codes, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program codes are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network device to determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to third or fourth aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to: receive, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and perform, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed by an apparatus, cause the apparatus at least to: determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises receiving circuitry configured to receive, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and performs, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises receiving circuitry configured to determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

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:

Fig. 1 illustrates an example network environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of mapping between LCG and slices;

Fig. 3 illustrates an example flowchart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of slice fraction which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a slice control case with slice quota indicator which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a slice control case with slice priority adjustment which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7A to 7C illustrate an examples of slice priority adjustment which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 8 illustrates an example slice schedule indication with slice quota and fixed indicator length example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figs. 9A to 9D illustrate example slice schedule indications with slice quota and flexible indicator length examples which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 10 illustrates example slice schedule indications with slice priority adjustment example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 11 illustrates example slice schedule indications with LCH priority list example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 12 illustrates example slice schedule indications with slice priority adjustment value example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 13 illustrates example slice schedule indications with LCH priority adjustment value example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 14 illustrates an example short buffer status reports (BSR) for slice which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 15 illustrates an example long slice BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 16 illustrates an example bundled slice BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 17 illustrates an example logical channel based BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 18 illustrates an structure of an single network slice selection assistance information;

Fig. 19 illustrates an example process of network slice registration and the corresponding protocol data unit (PDU) session establishment.

Fig. 20 illustrates an example flowchart of a method implemented at a network device according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 21 illustrates an example simplified block diagram of an apparatus that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

Fig. 22 illustrates an example block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some 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 may 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 may 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) , 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 third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, and/or beyond. 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 NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology.

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.

As used herein, the term “network slice” refers to a logical network that provides specific network capabilities and network characteristics. Operators may divide a network into multiple virtual end-to-end networks on a unified infrastructure. Each network slice is logically isolated in term of the radio access network, the bearer network, the core network, etc., and includes its own unique delay, throughput, security and bandwidth features to meet requirement of a wide variety of applications.

As mentioned above, with development of communication technology, many of the services such as eMBB, mMTC, uRLLC, etc. are quite demanding on high bandwidth, low-latency and ultra-reliability. Network slicing may support these services simultaneously with service differentiation and guaranteed performance and may accommodate several independent logical networks for different business needs and SLA requirements while running on shared physical infrastructure.

RAN slicing will allow new business models to evolve. A mobile operator may be able to:

i support multiple slices/public land mobile networks (PLMN) with agreed share of RAN resources indicated by SLA.

ii network slicing will allow the operator to customize the resources for given traffic characteristics, services &SLAs.

The inventors notice that while it is relatively simple to enforce “slice volume/quota control” in downlink, there are some inherent challenges when it comes to an uplink (UL) slice scheduling, especially an RAN slice-aware scheduling. In fact, in the existing solution, the RAN slice-aware scheduling might be quite difficult.

On one hand, buffer status reports (BSR) sent by UE to the serving gNB provide details on an amount of data waiting for transmission in the UL buffers at UE. However, in BSR, there is no any “slice specific” information or logical channel identifier sent by UE to gNB while requesting for uplink grants. On the other hand, allocation of grants by gNB is performed at per-UE level. Upon receiving uplink grants, the UE selects bearer (s) for data transmission according to priorities and other parameters configured on UE by gNB. In other words, UE uses the standardized “logical channel prioritization” procedure (LCP) while allocating resources to transmit data in uplink. In other words, the UE does not consider any network slicing aspects. Besides, details on “from which slice the resources were allocated by gNB is not communicated to UE either.

Therefore, it is hard to control or implement RAN slicing quotas based on resource allocation based on logical channel group (LCG) level buffer status and quality of service (QoS) based scheduling currently being used. Thus, there is a need for a solution of slice quota control in uplink transmission.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a solution for slice scheduling. In this solution, a terminal device receives a slice scheduling indication from a network device, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices. Based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, the terminal device performs transmission of the one or more slices. As such, in embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device may be directly specified the number of resources required at the slice level. Therefore, RAN slice resource quotas in uplink direction is effectively controlled, thereby improving scheduling efficiency and in turn system performance.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure for slice scheduling will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1-22.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The environment 100, which may be a part of a communication network, comprises terminal devices and network devices.

As illustrated in Fig. 1, the communication network 100 may comprise a terminal device 110 (hereinafter may also be referred to as user equipment 110 or a UE 110) . The communication network 100 may further comprise a network device 120. The network device 120 may manage a cell. The terminal device 110 and the network device 120 may communicate data and control information to each other in the coverage of the cell. A link from the network device 120 to the terminal device 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the terminal device 110 to the network device 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL) .

It is to be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices is only for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitations. The system 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices adapted for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it would be appreciated that one or more terminal devices may be located in the environment 100.

Communications in the network environment 100 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , the fifth generation (5G) or beyond, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) , orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) , time division multiplexing (TDM) , frequency division multiplexing (FDM) , code division multiplexing (CDM) , Bluetooth, ZigBee, and machine type communication (MTC) , enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) , massive machine type communication (mMTC) , ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC) , carrier aggregation (CA) , dual connection (DC) , and new radio unlicensed (NR-U) technologies.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example mapping between LCG and slices. As illustrated in Fig. 2, different logical channels belonging to a particular LCG may have resource quotas on different slices. UE sends buffer status at LCG level while requesting gNB for uplink grants. As the BSR is at LCG-level and there is no indication of specific logical channel (s) requesting for resources, there is no direct way to map resource requests to slices.

In the present disclosure, there is provide a solution of slice scheduling wherein a slice buffer status reporting (SBSR) and/or slice schedule indication (SSI) are defined to support the RAN slice-aware scheduling. Particularly, the SBSR is defined to enable BSR on the slice level, and the SSI is defined in order to enable the network device to have a better control of the per-slice resource consumption of a UE. Additionally, a new intra UE slice identifier is further defined so that the slice scheduling may be performed using the intra UE slice identifier with less bits instead of a single network slice selection assistance information (S-NSSAI) to further reduce overhead on control channels.

With the solution as proposed herein, it may enable the gNB to decide whether a UE needs to be scheduled based on the current quota usage of each slice or other SLAs in line with key performance indicators (KPI) (including QoS aspects) , and to control the per-slice resource allocation of a UE. Thus, the UL scheduling efficiency may be increased and in turn the system performance may be improved.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example flowchart of a method 300 implemented at a terminal device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 300 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 110 with reference to Fig. 1. It is to be understood that method 300 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 block 310, the terminal device 110 receives a slice scheduling indication from a network device, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices.

At block 320, the terminal device 110 performs data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may comprise one or more slice quotas corresponding to the one or more slices.

In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may contain one or more slice quota indicators (e.g., up to 8) . Each slice quota indicator is an integer value, and the actual quota of each slice may be calculated by dividing each slice quota indicator by the sum of all slice quota indicators. Slice quotas are expressed as, for example, percentages or any other suitable form.

When there is no slice scheduling indication received, a medium access control (MAC) entity of the terminal device will not have any slice based bias over all logical channels, but follow legacy policies and steps, for example, those as specified in TS 38.321. When receiving a new slice schedule indication, the MAC entity may store the calculated slice quotas, which will be used in the following new data uplink transmissions until a new slice schedule indication is received or the specific timer for the slice indication expires.

When receiving a UL grant, the MAC entity may divide the granted resources in terms of MAC PDU size in bits according to the slice quotas calculated above into several slice fractions. For example, the sizes of each slice fraction may be calculated as total-MAC-PDU-size*slice-quota, and the results may be rounded to bit. If there are an extra bit left due to rounding, those extra bits may be allocated to the last slice in the list.

For illustration purposes, Fig. 4 illustrates an example of slice fraction which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the MAC PDU includes two

slice fractions

0, 1. Slice fraction 0 includes MAC service data unit (SDU) from logical channel (LCH) 0 and LCH1 which both correspond to slice 0; Slice fraction 1 includes MAC SDU from LCH 2 which corresponds to slice 1. Therefore, it is seen that the MAC PDU may include one or more slice fractions, each slice fraction contains data from one or more LCHs associated with the same slice.

Thus, these slice fractions may be treated as smaller “virtual” MAC PDUs. For logical channels belonging to the slice, the MAC entity may follow the legacy policies and steps, such as those as specified in TS 38.321, to select and multiplex them to the slice fraction of UL grant, until either data for the logical channels in the slice or the slice fraction of UL grant is exhausted.

When gNB receives the MAC PDU successfully, it may compare the actual resource shares of each slice in the MAC PDU after de-multiplexing with the sent slice quota. If some of them are smaller, it may mean buffers of these slices are empty or nearly empty.

This may be a straight-forward approach to achieve a relative precise control of UE’s slice level behavior. However, some LCH with high priority in a slice with small quota may not be able to get enough resource to transmit data. This may be addressed by scheduling algorithm designs. Or alternatively, it is possible to define a set of slice quota violation policies, e.g. a prioritized LCH may pre-empt the slice quota from other slices with low prioritized LCHs, and when a gNB receives the MAC PDU, the gNB will also know that this slice is starving and may allocate more quota to it in the future.

A timeout mechanism may be introduced to avoid some LCH starving for too long time. The timeout value may be pre-configured via Radio Resource Control, RRC, message, or carried in slice schedule indication.

When the slice priority timer expires, the MAC entity may ignore the slice quotas and fall back to the regular or legacy multiplex policies and steps.

In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may comprise at least one priority adjustment information corresponding to the one or more slices. In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may further comprise an indication indicating promoting or de-promoting priority order corresponding to the one or more slices.

According to, for example, 3GPP TS 28.541 5G Network Resource Model, operator or network tenants may define resource management policies with attributes as rRMPolicyMaxRatio, rRMPolicyMinRatio, rRMPolicyDedicatedRatio for typical type of resources like physical resource block, PRB, RRC connected users, and Data Radio Bearer, DRB. These attributes specify a range of percentages of radio resources that may be used by the associated entities, in this case, slices. This is an example use case for the slice volume control. Of course, in order to fulfil the SLA which is usually defined by high level performance indicator (e.g. user experienced throughput) , the gNB may need to dynamically distribute radio resources among slices or PLMNs.

In these use cases, the gNb may keep monitoring on how the allocated resources from the slices are used. Slice specific weight of a slice i (i denoting an index of a slice) may be derived in such a way that it reflects the promised fractional resource share (quota) of a slice from the total radio air interface resource (e.g., PRBs) over a sliding monitoring time window. Thus, the slice specific weight may be used to create relative priorities among the slices via biasing scheduler decision and its value may be adapted as per the actual resource consumption of the slice such that agreed slice specific quotas may be maintained.

However, if gNB finds that the resource (UL grants) allocation per slice by a UE is not in line with the slice target share (quota) , currently, the gNB may only take a decision on whether the UE may be scheduled or not, based on the current slice quota usage or/and other SLA related KPIs. with the help of slice schedule indication, the gNB may have a better control over UE with multiple slices. e.g., when other UEs of a slice i consume too many resources, the gNB may decide to decrease the weight of slice i to limit resources allocated to thereto. Then, for the UE having slice i among several other slices which are starving at the moment, the gNB may send slice schedule indication to the UE before sending an UL grant so the data from slice i may be limited. The slice quota indicators in the indication may be derived from the slice weights.

The SBSR, on the other hand, may help the gNB make a better decision. For example, when UE’s LCH with high priority has data to transmit, but the slice that it belongs to doesn’t have enough quota, it may initiate a SBSR to the gNB, and the gNB may adjust its strategy accordingly and try to give more quota share to the slice.

The slice schedule indication with slice quotas solution above may be implemented simply. Unlike adjusting LCH priorities, it may work at a different level with QoS strategies, so the gNB or UE won’t have to balance mixed restrictions from slice-based and/or QoS-based scheduling (i.e. 2 different dimensions of resource allocation) .

FIG. 5 illustrates an example slice control case example with slice quota indicator which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. After UE registration and slice configuration the UE may start the data transmission. At the beginning, all slices have the same buffer status, and the terminal device 110 may transmit SBSR to the network device 120. As all slices have the same buffer size, the network device, a gNB, decides not to limit the quota of any slices. When the available buffer storage amount for slice 0 is below a target value and the available buffer storage amount for slice 2 is above the target value, the network device 120 may generate a set of slice quotas and sends a SSI to UE. In the SSI, the proportion of the quotas may be for example 3: 2: 1 for slices 0 to 2. The terminal device performs data transmission of the one or more slices based on the proportion of the quotas as indicated by the SSI. Thereafter, slice 0 and slice 2 move towards the target value and finally return thereto, as shown on the right graph of FIG. 5. After the SSI timer is timeout, the terminal device may stop data transmission according to the quotas but perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the same slice quota.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example slice control case example with slice priority adjustment which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. After UE registration and slice configuration the UE may start the data transmission. At the beginning, the terminal device has full-buffer-like data for all channels, and no slice quota is specified. The terminal device sends all slices according to LCP. LCH in slice 0 has the highest priority, the priority list is [0, 1] . As all slices have the same buffer status, the network device decides not to limit the quota of any slices. When the available buffer storage amount for slice 0 is below the target value and the available buffer storage amount for slice 2 is above the target value, the network device 120 may generate a set of slice quotas and sends a SSI to the UE. In the SSI, the priority list may be, for example, [1, 0] . The slice priorities are changed to [1, 0] . The terminal device then performs data transmission of the one or more slices based on the priority list as indicated by the SSI. Thereafter, slice 0 and slice 2 move towards the target value and finally return thereto, as shown on the right graph of FIG 6. After the SSI timer is timeout, the terminal device may stop data transmission according to the quotas but perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the slice priority list [0, 1] .

In some embodiments, the slice schedule indication may contain slice priority adjustment message, which may inform UE to adjust the priorities of some or all logical channels temporarily, so the UL data will be multiplexed accordingly to fulfil the slice quota. The message may contain one or more slices (or logical channels) , and the slice (or logical channels) priorities are indicated by their respective positions in the list. For example, the 1st slice in the list may have the temporary highest priority, and the rest slices may have the decreasing priorities. The message may contain just a subset of UE’s all allowed slices (or logical channels) , and there may be a flag bit to indicate if the list is for priority promotion or demotion. If the flag denotes promotion, only the listed slices may be promoted and be put in front of other slices which are not in the list. If the flag denotes demotion, only the listed slices may be demoted and be put behind other slices which are not in the list. The priorities of those slices which are not in the list may remain the same. Additionally, the message may contain specific priority adjustment values together with promotion or demotion instruction for a subset of UE’s all allowed slices (or logical channels) . The temporary priorities of these slices (or logical channels) will be their original priorities plus or minus the received adjustment values. The logical channel priority may have a value of for example from 1 to 16.

Therefore, similarly, as mentioned before, when there is no slice schedule indication received, the MAC entity of the terminal device will not have any slice based bias over all logical channels, but follow legacy policies and steps, for example, those as specified in TS 38.321. When receiving a new slice schedule indication, the MAC entity may store the calculated slice quotas, which will be used in the following new data uplink transmissions until a new slice schedule indication is received or the specific timer for the slice indication expires.

When receiving a UL grant, the MAC entity may generate a new priority based list for all logical channels according to their adjusted priorities. If the adjustment information is slice ID based, the MAC entity may divide the logical channel priority list into the slice based sub-lists, in which the logical channels are still ordered discerningly according to their original priorities. The slice based sub-lists are ordered as same as the slice priorities from slice schedule indication. Then the MAC entity may connect these sub-lists head to end in order to form a new priority list.

Fig. 7A to Fig. 7C illustrates an example of slice priority adjustment which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in Fig. 7A, if the schedule indication indicates a priority of the slices 0 to 2, then the LCHs in the priority list will be reordered so that all CHs associated with slice 1 have the highest priority while CHs associated with slice 0 have the lowest priority. As further illustrated Fig. 7B, if the schedule indication indicates slice 2 without adjustment value, then the LCHs in the priority list will be reordered so that the slice 2 will have the highest priority. In addition, if the schedule indication indicates slice 4 and an adjustment value of 2, then the LCHs in the priority list will be reordered so that the priority of slice 4 may be adjusted by the indicated adjustment value of 2, as illustrated in Fig. 7C. Thus, the priority list may be updated as indicated by the SSI.

This slice priorities adjustment solution is a best-effort approach of slice control. The prioritized LCH may not be assigned with a limited PBR, but occupy the entire MAC PDU until the buffered data is exhausted. So the slice quota may not be guaranteed strictly, and the gNB will adjust the slice priorities more frequently based on the slice quota usage statistics.

A timeout mechanism may be introduced to avoid some LCH starving for too long time. The timeout value may be pre-configured via a RRC message, or carried in slice schedule indication, or it is predefined in standard. When the slice priority timer expires, the MAC entity may reset the original LCH priority list to for example a default one. The timeout may also be some other ways for example based on window which indicates how many frames/slots/mini-slots/symbols will the window last. Any other mechanism may not be excluded.

In some embodiment, the intra UE slice ID may be used, which will be described in details hereinafter. If intra UE Slice ID is not configured in RRC procedure, slice schedule indication with slice priority adjustment may adjust logical channels’ priority directly, in which way slice schedule indication MAC CE may contain the list of related LCH IDs. In some cases, if the slices’ logical channels affiliation overlaps with the LCGs’, the slice schedule indication may use LCG ID, instead of intra UE slice ID.

In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may be carried by means of MAC CE, or downlink control information, DCI.

In some embodiments, the MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication may comprise one or more of the following:

a first field for indicating whether the slice quota information corresponding to a slice is present;

a second field indicating the slice quota information corresponding to the slice;

a third field indicating the bitwidth of the second field, or

a fourth field indicating timeout value for a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication.

In some embodiments, the MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication may comprise one or more of the following: :

a first field indicating a plurality of slice identifiers;

a second field indicating a promotion or demotion flag;

a third field indicating timeout value for a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication;

a fourth filed indicating priority order of the slice identifiers;

a fifth field indicating priority adjustment value for a slice or logical channel; or

a sixth filed indicating whether an intra user device slice identifier is used.

In some embodiments, one new format MAC CE for slice schedule indication with slice quota indicators is proposed.

For illustration purposes, Fig. 8 illustrates an example slice schedule indication with slice quota and fixed indicator length example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. The format may have a fixed length as defined as follows:

- SLICE#i: This field may have on bit and indicate whether the presence of the slice quota indicator field for the slice i. The SLICE#i field for example set to 1 may indicate slice quota indicator field for the slice i is present. The SLICE#i field set to 0 may indicate that the slice quota indicator field for the slice i is not present. All bits are “0” means there is no slice quota limitation to all slices, and no slice quota indicator field in this case; Only 1 bit is “1” means only 1 slice is allowed to be transmitted next, and the slice get 100%percent of granted resources, and no slice quota indicator field in this case.

- Slice Quota Indicator: The slice quota indicator field indicates the slice quota. Each slice quota indicator may be a 7 bits integer value from [0, 127] and 1 reserved bit, in order to achieve 1%accuracy. And the actual quota of each slice is the slice quota indicator divided by the sum of all slice quota indicators. For example, if SQI#0 = 80, SQI#1 = 19, SQI#2 = 1, then the sum of all SQIs is 100, and slice#0’s quota is 80/100 = 80%, slice#1’s quota is 19/100 = 19%, slice#2’s quota is 1/100 = 1%.

In some embodiments, another new format MAC CE for slice schedule indication with slice quota indicators is proposed. The format has flexible length. For example, if all slices have the same quota, the slice quota indicators of all slices may all be 1. So the bitwidth of slice quota indicator may be flexible to save overhead.

Fig. 9 illustrates example slice schedule indications with slice quota and flexible indicator length examples which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. The format may be defined as follows:

- SLICE#i: This field indicates the presence of the slice quota indicator field for the slice i. The SLICE#i field for example set to 1 may indicate whether slice quota indicator field for the slice i is present. The SLICE#i field set to 0 may indicate that the slice quota indicator field for the slice i is not present. All bits are “0” means there is no slice quota limitation to all slices, and no slice quota indicator field in this case; Only 1 bit is “1” means only 1 slice is allowed to be transmitted next, and the slice get 100%percent of granted resources, and no slice quota indicator field in this case.

- Bitwidth Indicator: The bitwidth indicator indicates bit width of the slice quota indicator field. The value may be 2 bits wide and [0, 1, 2, 3] may represent [1, 2, 4, 8] , which depends on the precision requirement of the slice quotas.

- Timer Value: Optionally, the timeout value for the validity period of the current indication. The format is to be decided.

- Slice Quota Indicator: same as option-1 but with flexible bitwidth.

By means of the slice schedule indication, the slice schedule indication may have different lengths dependent on information to be indicated.

In some embodiments, yet another new format MAC CE for slice schedule indication with slice priority adjustment is proposed. The format may be defined as follows as an example:

- SLICE ID NUMBER: The slice ID number indicates the number of slice IDs in the list. The value could be [0 -7] , mapping to the actual value: [1 -8] .

- PROMOTE/DEMOTE Flag: if the slices present in the message are only a sub set of UE’s allowed slices, the flag indicate if the slices are to be promoted or demoted.

- Slice/LCH Priority Adjustment Value (optional) : if this field is present, the logical channels belong to the listed slices, or just logical channels in the list in case intra UE slice IDs are not configured, may adjust their priority by plus the adjustment value to their original priorities.

- SLICE ID #i: Each element is a intra UE slice IDs, the new temporary slice priorities are: indicated by their position in the list, which are in decreasing order; or to be promoted to the head (or demoted to the tail) of the original priority list of logical channels; or priority adjustment values together with promotion or demotion instruction.

- LCH ID #i (optional) : if intra UE slice IDs are not configured, Each element is a logical channel ID, and the new temporary slice priorities are: indicated by their position in the list, which are in decreasing order; or to be promoted to the head (or demoted to the tail) of the original priority list of logical channels; or priority adjustment values together with promotion or demotion instruction.

Fig. 10 illustrates an example slice schedule indication with slice priority adjustment example which can be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the indication includes slice ID number, promote/demote flag, timer value, and slice ID.

Fig. 11 illustrates an example slice schedule indication with LCH priority list example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the indication may include a LCH ID number, a promote/demote flag, a timer value, and a LCH ID.

Fig. 12 illustrates an example slice schedule indication with slice priority adjustment value example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the indication include a priority adjustment value, a promote/demote flag, a timer value.

Fig. 13 illustrates an example slice schedule indication with LCH priority adjustment value example which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the indication include a priority adjustment value, a promote/demote flag, a timer value and LCH ID.

From the above examples, it can be seen that an intra UE slice ID having 3 bits (having a value of 0 to 7) is used. Thus, compared with the LCH ID with 5 bits indicating 32 values, the communication overhead on air interface will be much substantially decreased. More details about intra UE slice ID will be described hereinafter. In addition, it can be appreciated if it is also possible to indirectly include a slice ID and corresponding control information in the slice schedule indication. It is also possible to use the Intra UE slice ID to identify a slice; however it is also possible to use a global slice ID, such S-NASSI although it might increase the signaling overhead, or any other suitable slice ID.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to transmit a slice BSR to the network device, wherein the slice BSR comprises information on data amount respectively associated with the one or more slices. For example, the slice BSR may be used to provide the serving gNB with information about UL data volume in the MAC entity. In some embodiments, a MAC PDU may contain utmost one SBSR MAC CE, even when multiple events have triggered a SBSR. The BSR related embodiments may or may not depend on other embodiments of slice scheduling. In some embodiments of BSR in the present disclosure, they can be running independently.

In some embodiments, the slice BSR may be triggered by at least one of:

- a periodic slice BSR timer expires;

- uplink data for a logical channel belonging to a slice becomes available or unavailable; or

- uplink resources are allocated and the number of padding bits is equal to or larger than a size of MAC CE of the slice BSR plus its subheader.

In some embodiments, the slice BSR may be transmitted by means of MAC CE, wherein the slice BSR is triggered and transmitted independently from a regular BSR, or wherein the triggering and transmitting of the slice BSR is bundled together with a regular BSR.

In some embodiments, the slice-BSR may be triggered and sent independently, or be bundled together with regular BSR. The bundled buffer status report may provide more views of the buffer to gNB. The bundled buffer status report may be triggered by the same conditions as the regular BSR.

In some embodiments, if the slices’ logical channels affiliation overlaps with the LCGs’, there may be only the regular BSR which is enough.

In some embodiments, if intra UE slice ID is not configured in RRC procedure, slice buffer status report may use per logical channel report, in which way the slice buffer status report MAC CE contains all related logical channel IDs and their buffer sizes, and gNB may sum them up per slices after receiving the report. In such case, the MAC CE overhead for a slice BSR may be the same as that for 32 logical channels in a UE.

In some embodiments, two new formats for slice based buffer status reporting are proposed. (i) short SBSR and (ii) long SBSR. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to transmit a long slice BSR when more than one slice has data for transmission, wherein the long slice BSR comprises data size respectively associated with the more than one slice; or transmit a short slice BSR when there is only one slice has data for transmission, wherein the short slice BSR comprises data size associated with the one slice.

The fields in the short and long slice based BSR MAC CE are defined as follows:

- SLICE ID: The slice ID field identifies the slice whose buffer status is being reported. The length of the field is 3 bits. It may be configured via RRC procedure to UE.

- SLICE#i: For the Long BSR format, this field indicates the presence of the Buffer Size field for the slice i. The SLICE#i field for example set to 1 may indicate that the Buffer Size field for the slice i is reported. The SLICE#i field set to 0 may indicate that the Buffer Size field for the slice i is not reported. For the Long Truncated BSR format, this field may indicate whether slice i has data available. The SLICE#i field for example set to 1 may indicate that slice i has data available. The SLICE#i field set to 0 may indicate that slice i does not have data available.

- Buffer Size: The Buffer Size field identifies the total amount of data available according to the data volume calculation procedure in TS 38.322 and 38.323 across all logical channels of a slice after the MAC PDU has been built (i.e. after the logical channel prioritization procedure, which may result the value of the Buffer Size field to zero) . The amount of data is indicated in number of bytes. The size of the RLC and MAC headers are not considered in the buffer size computation. The length of this field for the Short BSR format may be 5 bits. The length of this field for the Long BSR format may be 8 bits. The values for the 5-bit and 8-bit Buffer Size fields may be as shown in TS 38.321. For the Long BSR format and the Long Truncated BSR format, the Buffer Size fields may be included in ascending order based on the SLICE#i. For the Long Truncated BSR format the number of Buffer Size fields included may be maximized, while not exceeding the number of padding bits. The number of the Buffer Size fields in the Long BSR format may be zero.

Fig. 14 illustrates an example short slice BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, 3 bits are used to indicate slice ID and 5 bits are used to indicate the buffer size corresponding to the slice.

Fig. 15 illustrates an example long slice BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the BSR format includes a bitmap of n bits is used to whether the buffer size for a corresponding slice is reported and fields for indicating buffer sizes respectively corresponding to n slices.

Fig. 16 illustrates an example bundled slice BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the slice BSR (the lower part) in Fig. 16) is bundled with the regular BSR (the upper part in Fig. 16) . In other words, the bundled BSR could be a report containing both the regular BSR and slice BSR, and the slice BSR is transmitted together with the regular BSR.

Fig. 17 illustrates an example logical channel based BSR which may be used in example embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the BSR may include LCH ID number and LCH ID and corresponding buffer status. In some embodiments, if the slices’ logical channels affiliation overlap with the LCGs’, the regular logical channel based BSR will be enough.

From the above examples, it can be seen that an intra UE slice ID having 3 bits (having a value of 0 to 7) is used. Thus, compared with the LCH ID with 5 bits indicating 32 values, the communication overhead on air interface will be much substantially decreased. It is also possible to use the Intra UE slice ID to identify a slice; however it is also possible to use a global slice ID, such S-NASSI although it might increase the signaling overhead, or any other suitable slice ID.

In the current 3GPP standards specifications, S-NSSAI is an end-to-end identifier of network slice, and it has 4 bytes in order to support a large amount of slices. As illustrated in Fig. 18, the S-NSSAI comprises two parts: SST (Slice/Service type) and SD (Slice Differentiator) . The length of SST is 8 bits, and the SST is used to indicate the expected network slicing behavior in terms of functionality and services. The length of SD is 24 bits, and the SD is used to distinguish multiple network slices of the same slice/service type.

As specified in 3GPP TS 24.501 specified, UE may have maximum 8 S-NSSAI for each of the allowed NSSAIs, which means UE may support at most 8 slices at the same time. However, the S-NSSAI is 4 bytes long, it will add considerable overhead on control channels when use it to identify a slice.

To reduce the overhead, there is further provided a new slice identifier, i.e., a local slice ID with the less bits than the S-NASSI. The slice ID may be indicated intra UE slice ID. By using such intra UE slice ID in one or both the slice schedule indication and the slice BSR, the definition of the intra UE slice ID (intra-UE Slice ID) may be similar to the LCG ID definition. The intra UE slice ID may be configured to UE via a RRC procedure and its range may be but not limited to [0, 7] .

Fig. 19 illustrates example main operations of network slice registration and the corresponding protocol data unit (PDU) session establishment. By means of operations in Fig. 19, the gNB may assign intra-UE Slice ID and bind it to logical channels, and when UE may store the intra-UE Slice ID and use it later. The example embodiments of assignment of intra-UE slice ID may or may not depend on any other embodiments in the present disclosure, for example the embodiments of scheduling. The example embodiments related to intra-UE slice ID allocation may be running independently for the purpose of reducing signaling overhead of air interface in the present disclosure.

As illustrated in Fig. 19, the DL/UL synchronization may be performed 1901 between the UE and gNB. Then, the UE may send 1902 a RRC setup request to the gNB and the gNB may send 1903 a RCC setup message to the UE. The UE may send 1904 a RRC setup complete message back to the gNB. And the UE then may send 1905 a non-access-stratum (NAS) registration request to Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) . The AMF may send 1906 NAS registration accept message back to the UE. During the PDU session establishment procedure, the UE may initiate 1907 PDU session establishment request, and the gNB may initiate UL NAS transport to the AMF. Then, the AMF may send 1909 session management function (SMF) PDU session create session management (SM) context request to the SMF, and the SMF may send 1910 SMF PDU session created SM context response to the AMF. The AMF may send 1911 NGAP PDU session establishment request to the gNB. At 1913, the gNB may have the NSSAI allocated to PDU session, so gNB may assign an intra-UE slice ID for all the logical channels of this PDU session and send it to the UE via RRC reconfiguration. The gNB may send 1914 a RRC reconfiguration message to the UE, wherein the message comprise the intra-UE slice ID. Then the UE may store 1915 the intra-UE slice ID for identifying the slice related reporting and controlling messages via MAC CE.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may be further caused to receive, from the network device, slice identifier configuration information, wherein the slice identifier configuration information configures intra user device slice identifiers of slices to be used in slice scheduling.

In some embodiments, the slice identifier configuration information may comprise at least one of: mapping between single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI, and an intra user device slice identifier; mapping between a S-NSSAI and a logical channel, LCH; or mapping between an intra user device slice identifier and a logical channel, LCH.

In some embodiments, the slice identifier configuration information may comprise mapping between a S-NSSAI and a protocol data unit, PDU, session associated with one or more logical channel, LCH; or mapping between an intra user device slice identifier and a logical channel, LCH, wherein the intra user device slice identifier identifies the slices and has fewer bits than the S-NSSAI.

In some embodiments, each logical channel may be allocated to a slice using the intra UE slice ID. The maximum number of intra UE slice IDs may be 8 as an example. The MAC entity determines the amount of UL data available for a logical channel according to the data volume calculation procedure in TSs 38.322 and 38.323.

In some embodiments, the intra user device slice identifier may be configured in a RRC message.

In some embodiments, the RRC message may further comprise: a parameter indicating whether a slice BSR is bundled with a regular BSR, a parameter associated with a periodic slice BSR timer, and a parameter associated with retransmission of a slice BSR; and/or a parameter indicating whether a validity period of the slice scheduling indication is set by a periodic slice scheduling indication timer or a dynamic value indicated in MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication, a parameter associated with the periodic slice scheduling indication timer, indicating a static value of a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication, and/or a parameter indicating a logical channel priority threshold, higher than which the logical channel’s allocation is not limited to its slice quota.

In some embodiments, intra-UE Slice ID may need to be added into LogicalChannelConfig as below:

If intra UE slice ID is not configured in RRC procedure, slice control algorithm may still be able to work in a way of per logical channel (LCH) /LCG report and control, even though in such way, the overhead of MAC CE could be much bigger.

In some embodiments, slice BSR related RRC parameter may be similar to BSR configuration as below:

In some embodiments, some optional slice related configuration parameters may be defined as below:

Fig. 20 illustrates an example flowchart of a method 2000 implemented at a network device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 400 will be described from the perspective of the network device 120 with reference to Fig. 1. It is to be understood that method 2000 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 block 2010, the network device 120 may determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices.

In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may comprise at least one priority adjustment information corresponding to the one or more slices, and wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises an indication indicating promoting or de-promoting priority order corresponding to the one or more slices.

In some embodiments, the slice scheduling indication may be carried by means of medium access control control element, MAC CE, or downlink control information, DCI.

a third field indicating the bitwidth of the second field, or

a first field indicating a plurality of slice identifiers;

a second field indicating a promotion or demotion flag;

a fourth filed indicating priority order of the slice identifiers;

a sixth filed indicating whether an intra user device slice identifier is used.

In some embodiments, the network device may be further caused to receive, BSR from the terminal device, wherein the slice BSR comprises information on data amount respectively associated with the one or more slices.

In some embodiments, the network device may be further caused to transmit slice identifier configuration information to the terminal device, wherein the slice identifier configuration information configures intra user device slice identifiers of slices to be used in slice scheduling.

In some embodiments, the slice identifier configuration information may comprise at least one of: mapping between single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI, and an intra user device slice identifier; mapping between an S-NSSAI and a logical channel, LCH; or mapping between an intra user device slice identifier and a logical channel, LCH.

In some embodiments, the slice identifier configuration information may comprise mapping between a S-NSSAI and a protocol data unit, PDU, session associated with one or more logical channel, LC; or mapping between an intra user device slice identifier and a logical channel, LC, wherein the intra user device slice identifier identifies the slices and has fewer bits than the S-NSSAI.

In some embodiments, the intra user device slice identifier may be configured in a RRC message, and wherein the RRC message may further comprise: a parameter indicating whether a slice BSR is bundled with a regular BSR, a parameter associated with a periodic slice BSR timer, and a parameter associated with retransmission of a slice BSR; or a parameter indicating whether a validity period of the slice scheduling indication is set by a periodic slice scheduling indication timer or a dynamic value indicated in MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication, a parameter associated with the periodic slice scheduling indication timer, indicating a static value of a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication, and a parameter indicating a logical channel priority threshold, higher than which the logical channel’s allocation is not limited to its slice quota.

At block 2020, the network device 120 may transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.

Some example 5G slicing common use-cases are listed below:

- Home Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) Guaranteed High Speed Internet Service;

- Home FWA with Value-Added Services;

- Consumer mobile Value-Added Services;

- Enterprise slice;

- Enterprise FWA Leased Line;

- Network shared by two or more operators.

Some example requirements are listed below, it is inevitable that an efficient ‘slice quota control’ mechanism in uplink is need to support these requirements (in other words, to allocate necessary resources for these services) :

- Guaranteed on-line gaming low latency service option (e.g. 2/2 Mbps ～20ms) ;

- Guaranteed High Definition (HD) quality low latency cloud gaming service option (e.g. 20/2 Mbps ～20ms) ;

- Work at home access with high peak rate and minimum guaranteed bitrate option (e.g. min 10/5 Mbps) ;

- Service access authorization per customer;

- Different speed or quality tiers available for each service;

- Resources are guaranteed based on enterprise needs (e.g. factory campus area with 1000 devices, 200 simultaneous UE, 5/1Mbps average service each) ;

- Differentiated enterprise services in enterprise slice may be created using QoS mechanism;

- Devices might simultaneously connect to enterprise slice and other slices, e.g. operator IMS slice;

- Guaranteed downlink and uplink leased line service for enterprise access;

- Two operators with Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN) want to share network capacity fairly (downlink, uplink, users, Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) services) based on agreement (e.g. 50/50%) ;

- Each operator may independently create slicing services within their allocation (e.g. use cases described in this document) .

In the context of these use-cases and requirements, 3GPP standards enhancements are necessary to facilitate an efficient collaboration between gNB and UEs, as there are multiple vendors.

Fig. 21 is a simplified block diagram of a device 2100 that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 2100 may be provided to implement the communication device, for example the terminal device 110, the network device 120 as shown in Fig. 1. As shown, the device 2100 includes one or more processors 2110, and one or more transmitters and/or receivers (TX/RX) 2140 coupled to the processor 2110. The device 2100 may further include one or more memories 2120 coupled to the processor 2110. The device 2100 may further include one or more memory 2120 storing instructions coupled to the one or more processors 2110.

The TX/RX 2140 may be for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 2140 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 2110 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 2100 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 communication module 840 may include for example one or more transceivers. The one or more transceivers may be coupled with one or more antennas, to wirelessly transmit and receive communication signals. The one or more transceivers allow the communication device to communicate with other devices that may be wired and/or wireless. The transceiver may support one or more radio technologies. For example, the one or more transceivers may include a cellular subsystem, a WLAN subsystem, and/or a Bluetooth ^TM subsystem. In some examples, the one or more transceivers may include processors, controllers, radios, sockets, plugs, buffers, and like circuits/devices used for connecting to and communication on networks.

The memory 2120 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) 2124, 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. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 2122 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 2130 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 2110. The program 2130 may be stored in the ROM 2124. The processor 2110 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 2130 into the RAM 2122.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 2130 so that the device 2100 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to Figs. 3 to 20. 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 2130 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 2100 (such as in the memory 2120) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 2100. The device 2100 may load the program 2130 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 2122 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. 22 shows an example of the computer readable medium 2200 in form of CD or DVD. The computer readable medium has the program 2130 stored thereon.

Generally, 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, apparatus, 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 method 200 or 400 as described above with reference to Figs. 3-20. Generally, program modules 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 apparatus, 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, apparatus 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, apparatus, 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 terminal device, comprising:

one or more transceivers; and

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers,

and the one or more processors are configured to cause the terminal device to:

receive, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

perform, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.
The terminal device according to Claim 1, wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises one or more slice quotas corresponding to the one or more slices.
The terminal device according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises at least one priority adjustment information corresponding to the one or more slices.
The terminal device according to Claim 3, wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises an indication indicating promoting or de-promoting priority order corresponding to the one or more slices.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the slice scheduling indication is carried by means of medium access control control element, MAC CE, or downlink control information, DCI.
The terminal device according to Claim 5, wherein the MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication comprises one or more of the following:

a first field for indicating whether the slice quota information corresponding to a slice is present;

a second field indicating the slice quota information corresponding to the slice;

a third field indicating the bitwidth of the second field, or

a fourth field indicating timeout value for a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication.
The terminal device according to Claim 5, wherein the MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication comprises one or more of the following:

a first field indicating a plurality of slice identifiers;

a second field indicating a promotion or demotion flag;

a third field indicating timeout value for a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication;

a fourth filed indicating priority order of the slice identifiers;

a fifth field indicating priority adjustment value for a slice or logical channel; or

a sixth filed indicating whether an intra user device slice identifier is used.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

transmit, to the network device, a slice buffer status report, BSR, wherein the slice BSR comprises information on data amount respectively associated with the one or more slices.
The terminal device according to Claim 8, wherein the slice BSR is triggered by at least one of:

a periodic slice BSR timer expires;

uplink data for a logical channel belonging to a slice becomes available or unavailable; or

uplink resources are allocated and the number of padding bits is equal to or larger than a size of MAC CE of the slice BSR plus its subheader.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 1-9, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

transmit a long slice BSR when more than one slice has data for transmission, wherein the long slice BSR comprises data size respectively associated with the more than one slice; or

transmit a short slice BSR when there is only one slice has data for transmission, wherein the short slice BSR comprises data size associated with the one slice.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 1-10, wherein the slice BSR is transmitted by means of MAC CE,

wherein the slice BSR is triggered and transmitted independently from a regular BSR, or

wherein the triggering and transmitting of the slice BSR is bundled together with a regular BSR.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 1 to 11, wherein the terminal device is further caused to:

receive, from the network device, slice identifier configuration information, wherein the slice identifier configuration information configures intra user device slice identifiers of slices to be used in slice scheduling.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 1 to 12, wherein the slice identifier configuration information comprises at least one of:

mapping between single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI, and an intra user device slice identifier;

mapping between a S-NSSAI and a logical channel, LCH; or

mapping between an intra user device slice identifier and a logical channel, LCH.
The terminal device according to any of Claims 12 to 13, wherein the intra user device slice identifier is configured in a radio resource control, RRC, message.
The terminal device according to claim 14, wherein the RRC message further comprises one or more of the following:

a first parameter indicating whether a slice BSR is bundled with a regular BSR,

a second parameter associated with a periodic slice BSR timer, and/or

a third parameter associated with retransmission of a slice BSR; and/or

a fourth parameter indicating whether a validity period of the slice scheduling indication is set by a periodic slice scheduling indication timer or a dynamic value indicated in MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication,

a fifth parameter associated with the periodic slice scheduling indication timer, indicating a static value of a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication, and/or

a sixth parameter indicating a logical channel priority threshold, higher than which the logical channel’s allocation is not limited to its slice quota.
A network device, comprising:

one or more transceivers; and

one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the network device to:

determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.
The network device according to Claim 16, wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises one or more slice quotas corresponding to the one or more slices.
The network device according to Claim 16 or 17, wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises at least one priority adjustment information corresponding to the one or more slices, and wherein the slice scheduling indication comprises an indication indicating promoting or de-promoting priority order corresponding to the one or more slices.
The network device according to any of Claims 16 to 18, wherein the slice scheduling indication is carried by means of medium access control control element, MAC CE, or downlink control information, DCI.
The network device according to Claim 19, wherein the MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication comprises one or more of the following:

a first field for indicating whether the slice quota information corresponding to a slice is present;

a second field indicating the slice quota information corresponding to the slice;

a third field indicating the bitwidth of the second field, or

a fourth field indicating timeout value for a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication.
The network device according to Claim 19, wherein the MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication comprises one or more of the following:

a first field indicating a plurality of slice identifiers;

a second field indicating a promotion or demotion flag;

a third field indicating timeout value for a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication;

a fourth filed indicating priority order of the slice identifiers;

a fifth field indicating priority adjustment value for a slice or logical channel; or

a sixth filed indicating whether an intra user device slice identifier is used.
The network device according to any of Claims 16 to 18, wherein the network device is further caused to:

receive, from the terminal device, a slice buffer status report, BSR, wherein the slice BSR comprises information on data amount respectively associated with the one or more slices.
The network device according to any of Claims 16 to 22, wherein the network device is further caused to:

transmit, to the terminal device, slice identifier configuration information, wherein the slice identifier configuration information configures intra user device slice identifiers of slices to be used in slice scheduling.
The network device according to any of Claims 16 to 22, wherein the slice identifier configuration information comprises at least one of:

mapping between single network slice selection assistance information, S-NSSAI, and an intra user device slice identifier;

mapping between a S-NSSAI and a logical channel, LCH; or

mapping between an intra user device slice identifier and a logical channel, LCH.
The network device according to any of Claims 23 to 24, wherein the intra user device slice identifier is configured in a radio resource control, RRC, message, and wherein the RRC message further comprises one or more of the following:

a first parameter indicating whether a slice BSR is bundled with a regular BSR,

a second parameter associated with a periodic slice BSR timer, and/or

a third parameter associated with retransmission of a slice BSR; and/or

a fourth parameter indicating whether a validity period of the slice scheduling indication is set by a periodic slice scheduling indication timer or a dynamic value indicated in MAC CE for the slice scheduling indication,

a fifth parameter associated with the periodic slice scheduling indication timer, indicating a static value of a validity period of the current slice scheduling indication, and/or

a sixth parameter indicating a logical channel priority threshold, higher than which the logical channel’s allocation is not limited to its slice quota.
A method at a terminal device, comprising:

receiving, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

performing, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.
The method according to Claim 26, further comprising:

transmitting, to the network device, a slice buffer status report, BSR, wherein the slice BSR comprises information on data amount respectively associated with the one or more slices.
A method at a network device, comprising:

determining a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

transmitting, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.
The method according to Claim 28, further comprising:

receiving, from the terminal device, a slice buffer status report, BSR, wherein the slice BSR comprises information on data amount respectively associated with the one or more slices.
An apparatus of a terminal device, comprising:

means for receiving, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

means for performing, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.
An apparatus of a network device, comprising:

means for determining a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

means for transmitting, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.
A terminal device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

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

receive, from a network device, a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

perform, based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication, data transmission of the one or more slices.
A network device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

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

determine a slice scheduling indication, wherein the slice scheduling indication indicates scheduling control information for one or more slices; and

transmit, to a terminal device, the slice scheduling indication to enable the terminal device to perform data transmission of the one or more slices based on the scheduling control information as indicated by the slice scheduling indication.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method of Claim 26 or 28.