WO2025220970A1

WO2025220970A1 - Node in wireless communication system and method performed by the same

Info

Publication number: WO2025220970A1
Application number: PCT/KR2025/004984
Authority: WO
Inventors: Xinyan Li; Chunying TANG; Jianwei Xu; Junhyuk Song; Yeok JANG; Gihyun KIM
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Current assignee: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Priority date: 2024-04-19
Filing date: 2025-04-11
Publication date: 2025-10-23
Anticipated expiration: 2026-10-19
Also published as: CN120835301A

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a node in a wireless communication system and methods performed by the same. A method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, including: performing dynamic spectrum allocation based on a first model; and transmitting a dynamic spectrum allocation result to a second node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result includes cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information includes indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information includes identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available.

Description

NODE IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD PERFORMED BY THE SAME

The present application relates to a field of communication technology, and more particularly, to a network node in a communication system, e.g., an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) based communication system, and methods performed by the same.

A change in the core network of the communication system (e.g., a 5G (5th-Generation) mobile communication system) is occurring. Since the radio access network (e.g., a 5G radio access network) has characteristics of various services, large bandwidth, and high frequency band, etc., it may cause a decrease in single-station coverage, an increase in equipment complexity and an increase in network construction scale, resulting in huge network costs and increasing investment return risk. Considering the characteristics and requirements of the radio access network, it is necessary to introduce new research and design ideas in which IT (Information Technology), CT (Communication Technology) and DT (Data technology) are integrated in the radio access network, which are consistent with the macro evolution trend of the communication industry. Based on this, operators are leading to establish an O-RAN (open radio access network) industry alliance, which proposes two core visions: "open" and "intelligent", which is consistent with the development trend of the communication industry, and is also another operator-led huge network change. The O-RAN Alliance hopes to leverage Big Data, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to build open and smart wireless networks, while incorporating open standards, white-box hardware, and open source software to reduce the cost of wireless networks.

Dynamic spectrum allocation is a key technology in wireless communication, such as spectrum allocation for use in a shared spectrum such as Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) or an unlicensed spectrum. Due to the rapid growth and scale expansion of the wireless communication industry, most of the spectrum below 6 GHz suitable for wireless communication has been substantially exhausted. Therefore, dynamic spectrum allocation (DSA) is also a key issue in 6G.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, including: performing dynamic spectrum allocation based on a first model; and transmitting a dynamic spectrum allocation result to a second node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result includes cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information includes indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information includes identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, wherein the transmitting a dynamic spectrum allocation result to a second node includes: transmitting a cell configuration message to the second node, wherein the cell configuration message includes the dynamic spectrum allocation result.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the dynamic spectrum allocation result further includes cell-level bandwidth part set information, wherein the cell-level bandwidth part set information includes starting resource block location, resource block size, and switching time of one or more bandwidth parts.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the cell channel indication information and the cell channel availability indication information is used for the second node to update an unavailable resource block list.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the cell-level bandwidth part set information is used for the second node to switch the one or more bandwidth parts based on the switching time.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the performing dynamic spectrum allocation based on a first model includes: receiving dynamic spectrum access related data from the second node; and using the first model for dynamic spectrum allocation based on the dynamic spectrum access related data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the dynamic spectrum access related data includes at least one of: open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) output power, O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU type, cell interference tolerance threshold, O-RU reception sensitivity, hardware component power consumed of O-RU, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, cell time division duplexing (TDD)/frequency division duplexing (FDD) configuration, cell channel preference, continuous bandwidth preference, cell type.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system, including: receiving a dynamic spectrum allocation result from a first node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result includes cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information includes indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information includes identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available; and updating an unavailable resource block list based on the received dynamic spectrum allocation result.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the receiving a dynamic spectrum allocation result from a first node includes: receiving cell configuration message from the first node, wherein the cell configuration message includes the dynamic spectrum allocation result.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: switching the one or more bandwidth parts based on the switching time.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: detecting whether the cell-level bandwidth part set information needs to be reconfigured; and transmitting a bandwidth part set reconfiguration request to the first node if reconfiguration is required.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the detecting whether the cell-level bandwidth part set information needs to be reconfigured includes: detecting whether the cell-level bandwidth part set information needs to be reconfigured based on cell traffic related information and/or cell interference related information.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting downlink control information (DCI) to a user equipment (UE), wherein the downlink control information is used to indicate a bandwidth part after switching.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, including: transmitting a first message to a second node, wherein the first message includes first request information for first dynamic spectrum access related data for performing dynamic spectrum access for a third node; receiving a second message from the second node, wherein the second message includes requested information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data; and training a first model based on information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data, wherein the first model is trained to determine dynamic spectrum allocation information based on input information of second dynamic spectrum access related data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data and/or the information of the second dynamic spectrum access related data includes one or more of: open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) output power, O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU type, cell interference tolerance threshold, O-RU reception sensitivity, hardware component power consumed of O-RU, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, cell time division duplexing (TDD)/frequency division duplexing (FDD) configuration, cell channel preference, continuous bandwidth preference, cell type.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the dynamic spectrum allocation information includes one or more of: identifier information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, identifier information of an O-RU, identifier information of an O-RU carrier, bandwidth information of an O-RU carrier, frequency band information of an O-RU carrier, absolute frequency center information of an O-RU carrier.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the dynamic spectrum allocation information includes cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information includes indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information includes identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the dynamic spectrum allocation information includes cell-level bandwidth part set information, wherein the cell-level bandwidth part set information includes starting resource block location, resource block size, and switching time of one or more bandwidth parts.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting a third message to the second node, wherein the third message includes second request information for second dynamic spectrum access related data for performing dynamic spectrum access for the third node; receiving a fourth message from the second node, wherein the fourth message includes requested information of the second dynamic spectrum access related data; and determining, by a trained first model, the dynamic spectrum allocation information based on information of the second dynamic spectrum access related data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting the dynamic spectrum allocation information to the second node through a fourth node or directly.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting a fifth message to the second node, wherein the fifth message includes a collection request for data related to performance evaluation of a dynamic spectrum allocation strategy determined based on the dynamic spectrum allocation information; receiving a sixth message from the second node, wherein the sixth message includes the data related to the performance evaluation collected by the second node; and performing performance evaluation of the dynamic spectrum allocation strategy based on the data related to the performance evaluation.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the data related to the performance evaluation includes one or more of: cell throughput information, cell error rate information, cell Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) information.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving user scene-related information from an application server, wherein the user scene-related information includes one or more of: user's moving speed, user's moving direction, user's location information and user's real-time service information, wherein the training a first model includes training the first model based on the information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data and the user scene-related information.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first node is a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) node, the second node is an open radio access network distributed unit (O-DU) node, and the third node is an open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) node.

Embodiment of the present disclosure provide a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system, including: receiving a first message from a first node, wherein the first message includes first request information for first dynamic spectrum access related data for performing dynamic spectrum access for a third node; and transmitting a second message to the first node, wherein the second message includes requested information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data, wherein information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data is used to train a first model, and wherein the first model is trained to determine dynamic spectrum allocation information based on input information of second dynamic spectrum access related data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting a seventh message to the third node, wherein the seventh message includes third request information for requesting the third node to perform real-time data measurement, wherein data requested for the real-time data measurement include one or more of: open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), and hardware component power consumed of O-RU.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes receiving an eighth message from the third node, wherein the eighth message includes a measurement result of the real-time data measurement.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a ninth message from the third node, wherein the ninth message includes a measurement status indicating whether the real-time data measurement is successful and a waiting time; receiving an eighth message from the third node after the waiting time if the measurement status indicates that the real-time data measurement is successful, wherein the eighth message includes a measurement result of the real-time data measurement; and transmitting the seventh information to the third node again after the waiting time if the measurement status indicates that the real-time data measurement is not successful.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a tenth message from the third node, wherein the tenth message includes capability information of the third node; and configuring third request information for requesting the third node to perform real-time data measurement based on the capability information, wherein the capability information includes one or more of: a shared frequency band range supported by the third node, a measurement bandwidth supported by the third node, a measurement capability indicating whether the third node can perform measurement while performing serving and/or whether service needs to be disabled before performing measurement.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a third message from the first node, wherein the third message includes second request information for second dynamic spectrum access related data for performing dynamic spectrum access for the third node; transmitting a fourth message to the first node, wherein the fourth message includes requested information of the second dynamic spectrum access related data; and receiving dynamic spectrum allocation information, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation information is determined by a trained first model based on information of the second dynamic spectrum access related data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: receiving a fifth message from the first node, wherein the fifth message includes a collection request for data related to performance evaluation of a dynamic spectrum allocation strategy determined based on the dynamic spectrum allocation information; and transmitting a sixth message to the first node, wherein the sixth message includes the data related to the performance evaluation collected by the second node, wherein the data related to the performance evaluation is used to perform performance evaluation of the dynamic spectrum allocation strategy.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the first node is a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) node, the second node is an open radio access network distributed unit (O-DU) node, and the third node is an open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) node. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a node in a wireless communication system, including: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals; and a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to perform a method according to embodiments of the present disclosure performed by a node (e.g., a first node, a second node, etc.) in a wireless communication system.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform methods performed by a node (e.g., a first node, a second node, etc.) in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

The methods performed by nodes in a wireless communication system provided by the present disclosure can effectively realize coordinated allocation of spectrum resources among unlicensed users by exchanging data or information related to dynamic spectrum access between nodes.

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of certain embodiments of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows an O-RAN overall framework according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows the selection of an intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme and the determination process of corresponding configuration in an O-RAN scheme according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an example of a process of received power measurement for multiple frequency bands according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of an example of a process flow for collision of two different frequency band received power measurements according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic flowchart in which RIC adjusts cell bandwidths adaptively according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows a use case in which RIC adjusts cell bandwidths adaptively according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7a shows an example in which RIC allocates a dynamic spectrum allocation result satisfying cell bandwidth requirements according to user priority information according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7b shows a relevant schematic flowchart in which indication information of available spectrum channels is carried in an intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme in the O-RAN scheme according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 shows a schematic flowchart in which RIC recommends spectrum allocation with channel availability indication information based on information such as whether a cell has high-priority users according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 shows a use case in which RIC adaptively recommends a spectrum allocation result with channel availability indication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic flowchart of spectrum reconfiguration in which carrier deactivation is needed according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11a shows a method of recommending a dynamic spectrum allocation scheme with Bandwidth Part set (BWP set) information based on RIC predicted traffic, interference and other information according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11b shows a method of re-recommending a dynamic spectrum allocation scheme with BWP set information based on one or more of allocated spectrum resources, RIC predicted traffic, interference and other information according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11c shows a relevant flowchart in which bandwidth part set indication is carried in an intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme in the O-RAN scheme according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGs. 12a and 12b respectively show schematic diagrams of a cell-level bandwidth part location indication and a user-level bandwidth part location indication according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram of RIC traffic prediction according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGs. 14 and 15 show schematic diagrams in which RIC recommends an allocation result of cell-level bandwidth part sets and reconfigures bandwidth part sets according to traffic information according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17a shows a flowchart of a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17b shows a flowchart of a method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 17c shows a flowchart of a method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 18 shows a schematic diagram of a node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

The term "include" or "may include" refers to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component which can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure and does not limit one or more additional functions, operations, or components. The terms such as "include" and/or "have" may be construed to denote a certain characteristic, number, step, operation, constituent element, component or a combination thereof, but may not be construed to exclude the existence of or a possibility of addition of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

The term "or" used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any or all of combinations of listed words. For example, the expression "A or B" may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.

Unless defined differently, all terms used herein, which include technical terminologies or scientific terminologies, have the same meaning as that understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. Such terms as those defined in a generally used dictionary are to be interpreted to have the meanings equal to the contextual meanings in the relevant field of art, and are not to be interpreted to have ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearly defined in the present disclosure.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. However, it should be understood that the description is exemplary only and is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Furthermore, in the following description, descriptions of well-known structures and technologies are omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the concepts of the present disclosure. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, based upon the present disclosure, that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

It is understood by those skilled in the art that, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the prior art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless specifically defined herein.

In the present disclosure, node, network element, entity, etc. may be used interchangeably.

In the present disclosure, channel allocation/reconfiguration and spectrum allocation/reconfiguration may be used interchangeably.

In the present disclosure, user equipment (UE), user, terminal, etc. may be used interchangeably.

In the present disclosure, a node may refer to any access network or core network node or component thereof, such as Service Management and Orchestration (SMO), Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM), Non-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC), Near-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Near-RT RIC), O-RAN Network Function, Base Station, O-RAN Centralized Unit (O-CU), O-RAN Distributed Unit (O-DU), O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU), etc.

FIG. 1 shows an O-RAN overall framework according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The design principle of the O-RAN reference architecture is based on a radio network CU/DU (Centralized Unit/Distributed Unit) architecture and function virtualization. It introduces open interface and open hardware reference design, and utilizes artificial intelligence to optimize radio control flow. The following description will be made with reference to FIG. 1.

101 indicates a Service Management and Orchestration (SMO), which is an entity that provides various management services and network management functions.

101-1 indicates a Non-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Non-RT RIC), which has functions such as microservice and strategy management, wireless network analysis and artificial intelligence model training, etc. Trained AI models are distributed through an A1 interface to the Near-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller for online inference and execution.

102 indicates an O-RAN network function, which, compared with a non-O-RAN system, introduces a Near-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller (Near-RT RIC), and includes an O-RAN Centralized Unit (O-CU), an O-RAN Distributed Unit (O-DU), O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) and other entities.

The network function part of an O-RAN may be a gNB that supports 5G protocols, or an eNB that supports 4G (4th-Generation mobile communications) LTE (Long Term Evolution) protocols.

102-1 indicates a Near-RT RIC, and the Near-Real-Time RAN Intelligent Controller component in the O-RAN architecture is embedded and operates in the CU. It may be understood as a next-generation Radio Resource Management function (RRM) enhancement function entity embedded with artificial intelligence technologies.

102-2 indicates an O-CU, in which support for an E2 interface is added when compared with a CU of a non-O-RAN system.

102-3 indicates an O-DU, in which support for an E2 interface is added when compared with a DU of a non-O-RAN system.

102-4 indicates an O-RU, in which support for an Open-Front Haul (O-FH) interface is added when compared with a RU of a non-O-RAN system.

103 indicates an O-RAN cloud (O-Cloud), which supports a task orchestrable cloud system.

104 indicates a NG-core, which may be a 5G core network.

105 indicates external systems, such as servers of various applications (APPs), etc., which may provide rich data to the SMO.

The O1 interface is used to connect the SMO and the O-RAN network function entity.

The O2 interface is used to connect the SMO and the O-cloud.

The A1 interface is used to connect the non-real-time RAN intelligent controller. The A1 interface may be used to fulfill such an arrangement: the non-real-time RAN intelligent controller is embedded in the network management function, and the near-real-time controller is embedded in the wireless network elements such as Evolved Node B (eNB)/Next Generation Node B (gNB). Due to the introduction of artificial intelligence, the management interface A1 between the network management function and the wireless network elements goes beyond the Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security (FCAPS) function of a traditional network management function, and is extended with new data information such as the transmission of a base station operation strategy and the transmission of an AI machine learning model, etc.

The E2 interface is a standard interface between a near-RT RIC and a CU/DU protocol stack software. Compared with the interface between a Radio Resource Management (RRM) and a Radio Resource Control (RRC) of a traditional device, the near-RT RIC not only collects measurement information of each function entity of the wireless network through the E2 interface, but also transmits control commands to the base station through this interface, ultimately realizing the control of the base station behavior. Under the open software architecture, standardization of E2 interface enables the iterative evolution of near-RT RIC function software independent of the iterative evolution of traditional base station software versions, shortening the market time of the software functions.

The O-FH (Open-Front Haul) interface is located between the O-DU and O-RU logical nodes. The O-FH interface includes CUS-Plane (Control User Synchronization Plane) and M-Plane (Management Plane). In a hybrid mode, the M-Plane interface connects the O-RU to the SMO to implement a FCAPS (Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance and Security) function.

At present, that U. S. Federal communication Commission (FCC) is expanding the shared access spectrum available for unlicensed users. For example, the 3.55-3.7 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band has been opened under a unique three-tier access model. In addition, FCC also considers using the 5925-7125 MHz (6 GHz) band as a coordinated shared access band for licensed users and unlicensed users. The European Union also considers using the 5925-6425 MHz band as a coordinated shared access band for licensed users and unlicensed users. Based on these trends, it is expected that countries will provide more unlicensed shared access spectrum in the future. Based on the principle that access of unlicensed users must not affect users of the current network (such as LTE/NR, etc.), how to coordinate the allocation of spectrum resources among unlicensed users becomes an important issue.

FIG. 2 shows the selection of an intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme and the determination process of corresponding configuration in an O-RAN scheme according to embodiments of the present disclosure (taking the intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme generated by the Non-RT RIC as an example). The method described in conjunction with FIG. 2 is only an example, and some steps may be omitted or some new steps may be added.

Referring to FIG. 2, through steps S101 to S106, the SMO entity can collect information related to a dynamic spectrum access scheme (in the present disclosure, it may also be called dynamic spectrum access related information or dynamic spectrum access related data or information required for dynamic spectrum access or data required for dynamic spectrum access).

Step S101: SMO transmits a dynamic spectrum access related data request to O-DU (e.g., for model training). The SMO entity may transmit a first message for requesting dynamic spectrum access related data to the O-DU through the O1 interface, for example, a command or message for requesting collection and/or reporting of dynamic spectrum access related data. For example, the first message may include first request information for first dynamic spectrum access related data (e.g., dynamic spectrum access related data for training the AI/ML model) for dynamic spectrum access for a third node (e.g., O-RU). In some implementations, the requested data or information may include one or more of: O-RU output power (including maximum output power and minimum output power), O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU type, cell interference tolerance threshold, O-RU reception sensitivity, hardware component power consumed of O-RU, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, cell time division duplexing (TDD)/frequency division duplexing (FDD) configuration, cell channel preference (e.g., the channel preference of a cell may be but is not limited to maximum bandwidth preference (which means that the cell wants to obtain a continuous maximum available bandwidth), continuous bandwidth preference (which means that all cells under the same O-RU want to obtain continuous bandwidth, to facilitate filter design of O-RU)), and cell type (type information of a cell connected to an O-RU), etc. In some embodiments, the requested data or information may include the above information of one or more O-RUs.

Step S102: the O-DU transmits a real-time data measurement request (e.g., for model training) to the O-RU. After receiving the data (collection and/or reporting) request from the SMO, the O-DU transmits a command or message including a third request message requesting real-time data measurement to one or more O-RUs through the OFH interface (e.g., it may be called a seventh message). For example, the data or information requested to be measured included therein may include one or more of: O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), hardware component power consumed of O-RU (information of power consumed by each hardware component of an O-RU), etc. In some embodiments, the data or information requested to be measured may include the above-mentioned information of one or more O-RUs.

Step S103: the O-RU feeds back real-time data measurement information to the O-DU (e.g., for model training). The real-time data measurement information here may refer to the measurement results or measurement reports of the real-time data measurements performed by the O-RU. For example, one or more O-RUs may transmit an eighth message to the O-DU, where the eighth message may include measurement results or measurement reports of real-time data measurements. After receiving the real-time data measurement request from the O-DU, the O-RU measures the data or information required for dynamic spectrum access in real time and feeds it back to the O-DU through the OFH interface. For example, the measured data or information required for dynamic spectrum access may include one or more of: O-RU output power (including maximum output power and minimum output power), O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), hardware component power consumed of O-RU, operation bandwidth supported by the O-RU, frequency bands supported by the O-RU, maximum bandwidth information of the carrier, maximum number of carriers of the O-RU, etc.

Step S104: O-DU feeds back dynamic spectrum access related data information to SMO (e.g., for model training). The O-DU entity may transmit a second message including dynamic spectrum access required data or information (or requested dynamic spectrum access related data information) to the SMO through the O1 interface. For example, the dynamic spectrum access required data or information (or requested dynamic spectrum access related data) may include one or more of: O-RU output power (including maximum output power and minimum output power), O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU type, cell interference tolerance threshold, O-RU reception sensitivity, hardware component power consumed of O-RU, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, TDD/ FDD configuration information of a cell, cell channel preference, cell type, etc.

Step S105: external data is collected (e.g., for model training). In step S105, the SMO entity may collect user scene-related information (e.g., Edge Intelligence (EI) data) from an application server (e.g., an edge server). For example, the user scene-related information may include one or more of: the user's moving speed, the user's moving direction, the user's location information, the user's actual service situation (or referred to as the user's real-time service information), etc.

Step S106: training data extraction (e.g., for AI/ML model training). In step S106, the Operation Administration and Maintenance (OAM) entity extracts the information required for dynamic spectrum access and transmits it to the Non-RT RIC.

Step S107: training, deployment and activation of an AI/ML model (herein, it may be referred to as a first model). In step S107, the AI/ML model is trained by Non-RT RIC based on the collected dynamic spectrum access related data (e.g., by using the collected dynamic spectrum access related data as training data). This embodiment takes the AI/ML model deployed on the Non-RT RIC as an example, but the AI/ML model can also be deployed on other entities. Non-RT RIC and SMO are located on the same logical entity, and the information collected by SMO may be used as input information to the AI/ML. The AI/ML model is trained to determine (e.g., predict or infer) and/or output information such as spectrum allocation modes and/or spectrum allocation bandwidths and/or spectrum allocation bands (e.g., it may be referred to herein as dynamic spectrum allocation information) based on information of dynamic spectrum access related data as input data. The trained AI/ML model deployed at the Non-RT RIC may be activated for prediction or inference. The dynamic spectrum allocation information as the output of the AI/ML model may include, for example, one or more of: identifier information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, identifier information of an O-RU, identifier information of an O-RU carrier, bandwidth information of an O-RU carrier, frequency band information of an O-RU carrier, absolute frequency center information of an O-RU carrier, etc. The dynamic spectrum related information as the output of the AI/ML model can help the O-DU configure information such as the operation bandwidth and operation frequency of the O-RU, etc.

Steps S108 to S109: triggering of dynamic spectrum allocation performance monitoring and AI/ML model prediction, for example, request and/or collection of real-time data for prediction or inference by the AI/ML model. The triggering of dynamic spectrum allocation performance monitoring may be of various manners, such as a periodic triggering manner and/or an event-triggered manner, etc. The time granularity of the periodic triggering manner may be "second", "minute", "hour" or even a "day" level, which may be determined by each core network based on local data. The event-triggered manner includes events such as large-scale change in traffic of one or more cells occurs, or interference of one or more cells exceeds an interference threshold, or a new cell has a dynamic spectrum request, etc. The prediction of the AI/ML model regarding dynamic spectrum access can be the same as steps S101 and S102, except for the time for data collection, where the time granularity of data collection depends on the way of dynamic spectrum access performance monitoring. For example, in step S108, similar to step S101, the SMO may transmit a third message to the O-DU. The third message may include second request information for second dynamic spectrum access related data (e.g., dynamic spectrum access related data for prediction or inference by the trained AI/ML model) for dynamic spectrum access for the third node (e.g., the O-RU). As mentioned above, the third message may be transmitted in a periodic triggering manner and/or an event-triggered manner. In addition, step S109 may be the same as step S102.

Steps S110 to S112: transmission and extraction of collected data, for example, in order for AI/ML model inference. In step S110, the O-RU transmits data to be collected in real time to the O-DU through the OFH interface, and the data or information that needs to be collected in real time may be similar or consistent with that in step S103. In step S111, the O-DU feeds back the data collected in real time and the data transmitted from the O-RU to the SMO through the O1 interface, and the data or information that needs to be fed back may be similar or consistent with that in S104. In step S112, the OAM extracts inference data.

Step S113: inference of the AI/ML model. In step S113, based on the user scene-related information from the application server in real time (which may be obtained in a manner similar to step S105) and the dynamic spectrum access related information of the O-DU and/or O-RU, a deployed AI/ML model can predict or infer dynamic spectrum allocation information, which, for example, may include one or more of: identifier information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, identifier information of an O-RU, identifier information of an O-RU carrier, bandwidth information of an O-RU carrier, frequency band information of an O-RU carrier, absolute frequency center information of an O-RU carrier, etc.

Steps S114 ~ S117: configuration of a dynamic spectrum access strategy. Non-RT RIC may configure the dynamic spectrum allocation information inferred by the AI/ML model in two manners. Option 1: Non-RT RIC transfers the dynamic spectrum allocation information inferred by the AI/ML model to Near-RT RIC through the A1 interface, and the Near-RT RIC then transmits the dynamic spectrum allocation information to the O-DU through the E2 interface; and Option 2: Non-RT RIC transfers the dynamic spectrum allocation information inferred by the AI/ML model to the OAM, and the OAM then transmits the dynamic spectrum allocation information to the O-DU through the O1 interface. The O-DU will configure the bandwidth information, frequency band information, absolute frequency center information, etc. of the corresponding O-RU carrier according to the dynamic spectrum allocation information.

Steps S118 ~ S120: performance evaluation of a dynamic spectrum access strategy. For example, the dynamic spectrum access strategy may be a dynamic spectrum access strategy determined based on dynamic spectrum allocation information output by a trained AI/ML model. In step S118, the OAM transmits a fifth message including a collection request of data (e.g., KPI) related to performance evaluation of the dynamic spectrum access strategy to the O-DU over the O1 interface. Afterwards, the OAM may receive a sixth message from the O-DU including performance evaluation related data collected by the O-DU. This step is omitted in FIG. 2 to simplify the description. After receiving the collected data, in step S119, the OAM extracts the data required for performance evaluation (or may be called performance evaluation related data) and transmits it to the Non-RT RIC. On this basis, in step S120, the Non-RT RIC can perform performance evaluation of the dynamic spectrum access strategy (or may be called spectrum allocation performance evaluation), and can retrain or optimize the AI/ML model if necessary, thereby further improve the performance of the AI/ML model for dynamic spectrum access. According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the performance evaluation related data may include one or more of the following (e.g., related to the O-DU and/or O-RU and/or O-RAN): cell throughput information, cell error rate information, cell Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) information, etc.

An example of AI/ML model input data is shown in Table 1. An example of AI/ML model output data is shown in Table 2. The information elements listed in Table 1 and Table 2 are only examples. The input data for the AI/ML model may include one or more of the information elements shown in Table 1, or may include other information elements. The output data of the AI/ML model may include one or more of the information elements shown in Table 2, or may include other information elements.

Table 1:Example of input data of an AI/ML model

Information Element/Group Name	Presence	Semantic description
>> Output power information	Yes	The maximum and minimum output power of an O-RU. Generally, the larger the output power is, the larger interference to the neighbouring cells is
>> Received power information	Yes	O-RU's received power
>> Received power signal strength indication information	Yes	Radio link quality of an O-RU in a specific frequency band
>> Cell traffic information	Yes	Information of average, maximum, minimum traffic of a cell within a certain time
>> Cell interference information	Yes	Interference condition of a cell within a certain time
>> O-RU type	Yes	Information about whether an O-RU is a shared O-RU
>> Cell type information	Yes	Information about whether a cell is a shared cell
>> O-RU Supported bandwidth	Yes	Reporting of O-RU supported capability
>> O-RU Supported band	Yes	Reporting of O-RU supported capability
>> O-RU reception sensitivity	Yes	Reporting of O-RU anti-interference capability
>> O-RU power consumption	Yes	O-RU power consumption (kWh)
>> O-RU maximum supported carrier	Yes	Reporting of O-RU supported capability
>> Mapping relationship information between O-RU and cell	Yes	Reporting of a relationship between O-RU and cell; the multiple cells under an O-RU are not recommended to be allocated with overlapping spectrum resources
>> Cell TDD/FDD information	Yes	TDD slot configuration information of a cell; if the TDD configurations of adjacent cells are different, they are recommended to be allocated with different spectrum resources
>> Cell user priority information	Yes	Whether there are high-priority users in a cell
>> Cell channel preference	Yes	Reporting of cell channel preference
>> Cell interference tolerance threshold information	Yes	Reporting of cell anti-interference capability
>> Service type	Yes	Reporting of service anti-interference capability
>> Uplink and downlink reference signal information	Yes	SRS, CSI-RS configuration information
>> UE external information	Optional	The user's moving speed, moving direction, orientation, acceleration, etc. obtained through GPS

Table 2: Example of output data of an AI/ML model

Steps S102 and S103 in the first embodiment will be further expanded in a second embodiment, to enable measurement of received power in an O-RAN O-FH M-Plane.

O-RAN may support different shared frequency bands, for example, Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) frequency bands supported band48, License Assisted Access (LAA) frequency bands supported band46, band n104 and band n77 used by UK shared access low-power, etc. These frequency bands may coexist or may not coexist, and the coexisting frequencies may need hybrid coexisting measurements during spectrum sharing. Through the first embodiment, simultaneous measurements of multiple frequency bands can be achieved, and discontinuous measurements across frequency bands can be achieved. Since the interface proposed by the present disclosure is flexible, discontinuous results therein can also be enumerated in embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of an example of a process of received power measurement for multiple frequency bands according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The present disclosure is described taking CBRS as an example. It should be understood that embodiments of the present disclosure include but are not limited to CBRS. The method described in conjunction with FIG. 3 is only an example, and some steps may be omitted or some new steps may be added.

Step S201: capability negotiation between O-DU and O-RU: for example, the O-DU may receive a tenth message from the O-RU, and the tenth message may include capability information of the O-RU. The received power is calculated based on a specific shared spectrum service used. For example, for CBRS, relevant definition of the Winn Forum corresponding to CBRS must be used, while for other shared spectrum services, other corresponding calculation methods may be considered/used. When multiple optional frequency bands are supported, for example, the O-RU may provide detailed functions (which may also be referred to herein as capabilities) and limitations, and if no capability negotiation is provided, and if the O-RU has limitations on the measuring frequencies and there is no capability negotiation, the responsibility for verification falls on the O-RU. If the requested range exceeds the Instantaneous bandwidth (IBW) of the O-RU, it may output a status of "failure" with a detailed error message. Therefore, optionally, the exchange of detailed functions and limitations between O-DU and O-RU is supported, and the exchanged capability information may include one or more of the following:

1.supported measurement band range: the supported frequency range for which an O-RU can perform the received power measurement. for example, if the O-RU is mainly targeted for a CBRS band, there is preferably a limited (supported) range so that the interface can verify spectrum boundaries.

2.supported measurement bandwidth: optionally, a parameter "measure-bandwidth" may be added, for example, to indicate the maximum value of the bandwidth that can be supported by a single measurement. This parameter may be used to limit measurements or measurement reporting. For example, in the case of CBRS, if the supported measurement bandwidth (i.e., "measure-bandwidth") is 10MHz, it means that the measurement bandwidth of a single measurement needs to be less than or equal to 10MHz.

3.supported measurement capability: optionally, a parameter "InServiceHandling" may be added to indicate whether O-RU can support measurements when tx-array carriers are active in measurement band.

In some embodiments, after receiving capability information of the O-RU, the O-DU may configure, based on the capability information of the O-RU, third request information for requesting the O-RU to perform real-time data measurement. For example, the O-DU may configure a suitable shared frequency band range, measurement bandwidth, measurement occasions, etc., for the O-RU to perform real-time data measurement based on the capability information of the O-RU.

Step S202: measurement request. The O-DU may initiate measurement requests for different frequency bands at any time according to network commands. In order that the model of the present disclosure can be extended to multiple frequency bands and can support measurement requests of discontinuous frequency bands, the present disclosure strategically does not add a frequency band number as a parameter in a measurement request because the model of the present disclosure can also request multiple frequency bands for measurement together. The model of the present disclosure also supports scalability for future shared frequency bands.

In some embodiments, an example of a measurement request command is as follows:

Herein, the "measure-bandwidth" is the measurement unit.. For example, in the case of CBRS, measure-bandwidth is required to be less than or equal to 10MHz.

The "requested-spectrum" may represent sets of non-continuous frequency band ranges, which may be a list from an initial frequency (e.g., measure-start-frequency) to an end frequency (e.g., measure-end-frequency), and may extend to multiple frequency bands. measurement-start-frequency is the start frequency range requested for measurement. For band n48, the limited range is 3550...3700Mhz. O-RU can report the measurement of continuous spectrum or the limited discontinuous spectrum. When the O-RU does not have a spectrum grant from the CBRS system, received power shall be measured and reported over the entire CBRS band in segments that do not exceed 10 MHz per measurement report. When the O-RU has a spectrum grant from the CBRS system, received power shall be measured and reported over one or more frequency ranges that do not exceed 10 MHz per measurement report.

Step S203: measure response. Since the measurement requires a certain time, the present disclosure supports asynchronous measurement result feedback. For example, in step S203, only a measurement status (e.g., a status about whether the measurement is successful or not) may be fed back, and the actual measurement result of related information such as received power may be notified to the O-DU through an asynchronous notification message. In some embodiments, in step S203, the O-DU may receive a ninth message from the O-RU, which may include measurement status feedback indicating whether the requested data measurement was successful and a waiting time (which will be described below).

Optionally, the measurement status feedback may include a measurement status, which may be "success", or may be "failure", which may be accompanied by a detailed error message. For example, if no capability negotiation takes place, the responsibility for measurement frequency range verification falls on the O-RU. If the requested range exceeds the instantaneous bandwidth of the O-RU, it may output a status of "failure" with detailed error information such as "out of the frequency range".

In order to enable the response to make the requesting node more aware of the expected waiting time of the measured node, if the measurement status is "success", an expected transmission time of the measurement result may be indicated in the measurement response. To this end, a parameter "wait-time" can be added, so that the O-DU can start a corresponding response timer to wait for a response (e.g., a response including actual measurement results of related information such as received power).

If the measurement status is "failure", a measurement retry waiting time may be indicated in the measurement response. In this case, the parameter "wait-time" can be reused to indicate that within this time, a measurement request is not allowed to be transmitted again, thereby avoiding a problem of too frequent requests. In this case, the O-DU may retry step S202 again after waiting for a period of time (e.g., a time duration corresponding to the wait-time). In other embodiments of the present disclosure, another parameter (e.g., wait-time2) different from the wait-time described above may also be used to indicate the measurement retry waiting time without reusing the parameter wait-time indicating the expected transmission time of the measurement result, which is not limited herein.

Optionally, if the parameter wait-time is set to 0, asynchronous measurement notification may not be required. In this case, the measured received power and other related information can be directly fed back in step S203 without the need for steps S204 and S205.

Since the measurement request in step S202 can be applied to all coexisting frequency bands, 2 (or more) different frequency bands may be requested to be measured together, and the O-RU can process them together. A request identification (e.g., requestId) field may be included in S203 for distinguishing between different measurement requests. For example, the O-RU may only achieve normal measurement of one measurement request and reject new or other measurement requests, and through the requestId, it may be avoided to notify the rejection message to the request message of the normal measurements. Alternatively, the O-RU may support two or more measurement requests at the same time, and corresponding fields (e.g., corresponding requestId) may be used in S205 for distinguishing two or more different measurement results.

In some embodiments, an example of a measurement response parameter is as follows:

Herein, the "status" indicates whether O-RU accepted or rejected the measure request, which may be "success" or "failure";

the "error-message" indicates the detailed error message when the operation is failed; If the requested range is out of O-RU's Instantaneous BandWidth (IBW) then it can output status as FAILED with a detailed error-message.

"wait-time" declare the expected time for report delivery in notification. when the measurement status is "success", it indicates the time for waiting for the measurement result to be reported; when the measurement status is "failure" (or "unsuccess"), it indicates a measurement retry waiting time;

"requestId": used to identify an RPC for one measurement.

Step S204: a waiting time for asynchronous measurement.

Step S205: a notification message of a received power-related measurement result, and a parameter "measure-frequency" may be added to group the received measurement results. This change is to enable the O-RU to report measurement results of limited discontinuous spectrum. For example, multiple sets of received power values may be reported based on different measure-frequencies (and/or different measure-bandwidths).

Optionally, the wait-time may be notified to update a measurement waiting time.

In some embodiments, an example of the measurement result notification message is as follows:

notifications:

the "error-message" indicates the detailed error message when the operation is failed.;

"wait-time" declares the expected time for report delivery in notification, when the measurement status is "success", it indicates the time for waiting for the measurement result to be reported; when the measurement status is "failure" (or "unsuccess"), it indicates a measurement retry waiting time;

"requestId": Identify an RPC for one measurement;

The "measure-frequency" represents a measurement frequency, for example, it may represent a starting point of a measurement frequency;

the "measure-bandwidth" represents the measurement unit;

the "received-power" indicates the list of RSSI measurements.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of an example of a process flow for collision of two different frequency band received power measurements according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The method described in conjunction with FIG. 4 is only an example, and some steps may be omitted or some new steps may be added therein.

Wait-time is added to deal with potential collisions when multiple shared frequency bands transmit measurement requests simultaneously. The wait-time may be used to indicate that a request was validly accepted and may give the requester more knowledge of an expected waiting time. FIG. 4 shows two shared frequency bands, e.g., Band 1 and Band 2. For example, assuming that the measurement for Band 1 is successful, the O-RU may express an expected reporting time of the measurement result by the wait-time (e.g., wait-timel) carried in the response message related to measurement success. Assuming that the O-RU handles a collision when initiating a measurement for Band 2 and the measurement for Band 2 fails, the O-RU may indicate a waiting time for which it wishes to initiate a retry for the measurement for Band 2 by the wait-time (e.g., wait-time2) carried in the response message related to measurement failure.

Herein, any one or more methods, steps and elements in the various examples, drawings and embodiments can be implemented in any combination without limitation.

In order to simplify system design (e.g., it is easier to analyze continuous bandwidth channel models during channel estimation and equalization) and resource allocation design (the base station can design simple scheduling algorithms), the cell needs to be assigned contiguous BW. According to 3GPPspec, cell configuration includes absolute frequency center and cell BW. Discontinuous BW cannot be configured. Spectrum is allocated based on measurement BW, a cell BW can only be the sum of several contiguous measurement BWs. Due to the reported channel requirements of the cell, there may not be enough contiguous BW to satisfy the cell's needs.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic flowchart in which RIC adjusts cell bandwidths adaptively according to embodiments of the present disclosure. When training an AI model in RIC, if RIC detects that no continuous bandwidth meets the cell's requirements, RIC can adaptively adjust the cell's bandwidth (e.g., reducing by one measurement bandwidth each time), allocating the largest possible continuous bandwidth to the cell. However, the mismatch between the spectrum and traffic of the cell may lead to problems such as high connected UEs latency, low cell throughput, unsatisfactory UE quality of service (QoS), and poor user experience for users served by the cell.

FIG. 6 shows a use case in which RIC adjusts cell bandwidths adaptively according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 6, assuming that an unlicensed (or non-licensed) spectrum resource is 150MHz and the measurement bandwidth is 10MHz, the spectrum resource may be divided into 15 continuous channels according to the measurement bandwidth, and the channel indexes or identifications (ids) may be 0 to 14, and the bandwidth of each channel is 10MHz. If RIC predicts that the bandwidth requirement of a cell is 40MHz based on information such as traffic, interference and so on, or the cell reports that its bandwidth requirement is 40MHz, and the cell's channel requires a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) > -90dBm to ensure channel quality (as shown in FIG. 6, whether the channel meets the channel quality requirement may be expressed by Y (yes) or N (no)), then according to the method shown in FIG. 5, The final dynamic spectrum allocation result of the cell will be a channel indication information list {1, 2, 3}, and the allocated cell bandwidth will be 30MHz.

To solve this problem, when RIC detects that there is no continuous bandwidth meeting the cell's requirements, RIC may allocate non-continuous bandwidths which meet the cell's requirements to the cell, or allocate a continuous spectrum to the cell and indicate the unavailable spectrum locations therein. RIC may perform DSA result recommendation based on one or more factors such as information about whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, traffic requirements, interference, etc., such as recommending a continuous spectrum and indicating unavailable spectrum locations therein. Through this method, the requirements of the cell can be met to the greatest extent, thereby improving the throughput of the cell, meeting connected UEs QoS, and improving the user experience.

FIG. 7a shows another embodiment of the present disclosure, in which RIC allocates a dynamic spectrum allocation result satisfying cell bandwidth requirements according to user priority information.

Step 711: DSAbased on a RIC AI model. When RIC detects that there is no continuous bandwidth to meet the cell's requirements, RIC may recommend a spectrum allocation result including channel indication (e.g., channelIndex, etc.) and channel availability indication information (e.g., channelEnable, etc.) to indicate whether spectrum information is available based on information such as whether the cell has a high priority user or the like when performing spectrum allocation. An example is shown in FIG. 8:

1. if information reported by a cell includes information related to that there is a high priority user in the cell, the cell may be allocated with a bandwidth (e.g., a continuous bandwidth) that meets the cell's requirements, along with channel availability indicators (e.g., channelEnable) to indicate unavailable channel locations (or indexes/IDs).

2. if the information reported by a cell includes information related to that there is no high priority user in the cell, the cell may be allocated with a maximum continuous bandwidth, which, for example, is determined by subtracting a measurement bandwidth from the bandwidth required by the cell.

Step 712: after inferring a dynamic spectrum allocation result, the RIC may transmit, through but not limited to cell configuration message, the dynamic spectrum allocation result including one or more of cell channel indication information (e.g., channelIndex), cell channel availability indication information (e.g., channelEnable flag), cell absolute frequency center information (e.g., new radio-absolute radio frequency channel number (NR-ARFCN)), cell bandwidth information (e.g., bandwidth (BW)), and the like. Here, the cell may be a cell served by the O-DU, or a cell of any other node.

Step 713: the O-DU receives the cell channel indication information and channel availability indication information from the SMO, according to which the O-DU can update a list of unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups (e.g., blockedRBList/ blockedRBGList) to indicate to a cell scheduler of resource blocks/resource block groups that are unavailable when performing scheduling, thereby preventing the cell from scheduling on unavailable channel spectrum. The method of obtaining the unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups includes but is not limited to step 713, and RIC may also infer the unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups in step 711 and configure the unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups to the O-DU in step 712.

Step 714: the O-DU provides carrier configuration to the O-RU according to the cell configuration, where the carrier configuration includes but is not limited to one or more of information such as carrier bandwidth (e.g., BW of the carrier), absolute frequency center (e.g., NR-ARFCN of the carrier), etc.

FIG. 7b shows another embodiment of the present disclosure, that is, a relevant flowchart in which indication information of available spectrum channels is carried in an intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme (taking the intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme generated by the Non-RT RIC as an example). This example allows RIC to adaptively recommend bandwidth that meets the cell's bandwidth requirements, thereby reducing delay of serving users, improving quality of service for connected users, and improving cell average throughput. The method described in connection with FIG. 7b is only an example, and some steps may be omitted or some new steps may be added therein.

Step S301: the SMO entity collects information related to a dynamic spectrum access scheme. Referring to steps S101 to S106 in FIG. 2, the SMO entity may request and collect related data or related information through the O1 interface. The requested related data or related information may include one or more of: O-RU output power (including maximum output power and minimum output power), O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, TDD/ FDD configuration information of a cell, cell signal strength indication threshold, cell channel preference and cell type (type information of a cell connected to an O-RU), etc. In some embodiments, the requested data or information may include above-mentioned information of one or more O-RUs and O-DUs.

Steps S302 and S303: in step S302, an AI/ML model (which may be referred to as a first model herein) is trained, deployed, activated and inferred, and a spectrum allocation result is generated. In step S303, the SMO provides the O-DU with the spectrum allocation result, which may be included in, but not limited to, the cell configuration information. Referring to steps S107 to S113 in FIG. 2, based on the collected dynamic spectrum access related data (e.g., by using the collected dynamic spectrum access related data as training data), the AI/ML model is trained by Non-RT RIC. This embodiment takes the AI/ML model deployed on the Non-RT RIC as an example, but the AI/ML model can also be deployed on other entities. Non-RT RIC and SMO are located on the same logical entity, and the information collected by SMO may be used as input information to the AI/ML. After the AI/ML model is trained, it can determine (e.g., predict or infer) and/or output information such as spectrum allocation modes and/or spectrum allocation bandwidths and/or spectrum allocation bands (e.g., it may be referred to herein as dynamic spectrum allocation information) based on information of dynamic spectrum access related data as input data. Information, which can also be called dynamic spectrum allocation information herein. The trained AI/ML model deployed at the Non-RT RIC may be activated for prediction or inference. The dynamic spectrum allocation information (also called as a spectrum allocation result) as the output of the AI/ML model may include one or more of the following information: identifier information of a cell, channel indication information of a cell, channel availability indication information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, bandwidth information of an O-RU carrier, absolute frequency center information of an O-RU carrier, etc. The dynamic spectrum related information as the output of the AI/ML model can help the SMO configure the O-DU. For example, the SMO can transmit a message to the O-DU in step S303, and the message may include information such as identifier information of a cell, channel indication information of a cell, channel availability indication information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, etc.

Herein, a cell channel indication information list may include one or more cell channel indication information, and the cell channel indication information may refer to the channel indicator or channel index or channel id of the channel configured with or allocated with or occupied by the cell. Cell channel availability indication information may correspond to a cell channel indication information list and may include identification information indicating whether one or more channels in the cell channel indication information list are available.

Herein, the cell channel indication information and the cell channel availability indication information may include but are not limited to the following forms or formats:

1. flexible cell channel indication information. The channel indication information can be adaptively generated according to a reported measurement starting spectrum location and a measurement bandwidth, and the minimum channel indicator is 0. The channel availability indication information may be a Boolean parameter. If the value corresponding to a certain channel is 1, it means that the channel is available, or if it is 0, it means that the channel is not available, or vice versa. In this format, spectrum-related information may be calculated using the following equations:

Cell bandwidth = measurement bandwidth * number of cell channel indication information

Cell available bandwidth = measurement bandwidth * (number of cell channel indication information-number of unavailable channel indicators)

Cell spectrum starting point = measurement starting spectrum location + cell minimum channel indication information * measurement bandwidth

Cell spectrum ending point = cell spectrum starting point + number of cell channel indication information * measurement bandwidth

Cell unavailable spectrum starting point = measurement starting spectrum location + minimum channel indication information corresponding to cell unavailable channels * measurement bandwidth

Cell unavailable spectrum ending point = cell unavailable spectrum starting point + number of cell unavailable channel indicators * measurement bandwidth

For example, in the CBRS band (3550MHz-3700MHz), the starting spectrum location is 3550MHz and the measurement bandwidth is 10Mhz, then there are 15 pieces of channel indication information (or may be called channel indicators or channel indexes/ids), respectively 0 to 14, where 0 represents 3550MHz-3560MHz spectrum resources, 1 represents 3560MHz-3570MHz spectrum resources, and so on for the remaining channel indication information. If a channel indication information list allocated to a certain cell is {3, 4, 5, 6, 7} and the channel availability indication information is {1, 1, 0, 0, 1}, then it means that the cell bandwidth is 5 * 10 = 50MHz, the available bandwidth of the cell is 10 * (5-2) = 30MHz, the spectrum range of the cell is (3550 +3 * 10 = 3580) ~ (3580 +5 * 10 = 3630) MHz, and the unavailable frequency band range is (3550 +5 * 10 = 3600) ~ (3600 +2 * 10 = 3620) MHz.

2. fixed cell channel indication information. Channel indication information is fixed according to a minimum measurement bandwidth (e.g., in CBRS spectrum sharing, 5MHz is specified as the minimum measurement bandwidth) in all unlicensed spectrum information and categories. The minimum channel indication information is 0, and the number of channel indication information is equal to total measurement bandwidth/minimum measurement bandwidth.

For example, if the category is a CBRS spectrum (150MHz) and the minimum measurement bandwidth is 5MHz, then the channel indication information can be fixed to 0 ~ 29 (i.e., 150/5 = 30 channel indexes). If a cell wants to perform channel allocation according to a measurement bandwidth of 10MHz during the channel allocation and the bandwidth requested by the cell is 30MHz, the channel indication information list may be {4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11}, and the channel availability indication information may be {1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1}. That is, it is preset that each channel has a bandwidth of 5MHz, and 30 channels are fixed. When channel allocation is performed, corresponding continuous channels are selected from the 30 channels according to the measurement bandwidth configured by the O-DU and the bandwidth required by the cell.

If the spectrum allocation result does not include cell channel availability indication information, it means that the spectrum/channel corresponding to the channel indication information allocated by the cell is all available. An example of channel indication information and channel availability indication information is given below, but the present disclosure is not limited to this example:

Herein, the "allocatedBandlist" indicates the allocated bandwidth list of the cell, the "channelIndex" is the channel indication information (list), indicating the channel locations (or indexes/IDs), and the "channelEnable" is the channel availability indication information, indicating the channel availability of one or more channels corresponding to the channel indication information (list).

When RIC detects that there is no continuous bandwidth to meet the cell's requirements, RIC may recommend a spectrum allocation result including channel availability indication information (e.g., channelEnable, etc.) to indicate whether spectrum information is available based on information such as whether the cell has a high priority user or the like when performing spectrum allocation. An example is shown in FIG. 8:

Step S304: the O-DU receives the cell channel indication information and channel availability indication information from the SMO, according to which the O-DU can update a list of unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups to indicate to a cell scheduler of resource blocks/resource block groups that are unavailable when performing scheduling, thereby preventing the cell from performing scheduling on unavailable channel spectrum. The method of obtaining the unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups includes but is not limited to step S304, and RIC may also infer the unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups in step S302 and configure the unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups to O-DU in step S303. An example indication format of an unavailable resource block/resource block group list is given below, but the present disclosure is not limited to the following format:

Herein, the "blockedRBList" indicates the locations of the resource blocks/resource block groups unavailable for scheduling, the "id" indicates the identifier of the resource blocks/resource block groups unavailable for scheduling, the "startRB" and the "startRBG" indicate the starting location of the resource blocks/resource block groups unavailable for scheduling respectively, and the "NumberOfBlockedRBs" and the "NumberOfBlockedRBGs" indicate the number of the resource blocks/resource block groups unavailable for scheduling respectively, to determine the specific locations of the resource blocks/resource block groups unavailable for scheduling. Here, a resource unavailable for scheduling may refer to a resource that is unavailable, or a resource that is unavailable for scheduling.

Step S305: the O-DU provides carrier configuration to the O-RU according to the cell configuration, where the carrier configuration includes but is not limited to information such as carrier bandwidth, absolute frequency center, etc.

According to steps S301~305, FIG. 9 gives a use case in which RIC adaptively recommends a spectrum allocation result with channel availability indication. Assuming a total of 150MHz of unlicensed spectrum and a measurement bandwidth of 10MHz, if RIC predicts that the cell bandwidth requirement is 40MHz based on information such as traffic, interference, etc., or the cell reports that its bandwidth requirement is 40MHz, and the cell's channel requires RSSI >-90dBm to ensure channel quality, and the cell reports that it contains high priority users (e.g., vip UEs), then the cell can receive the following spectrum allocation results: {channelIndex: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; channelEnable: 1, 1, 1, 0, 1}. Upon receiving the channelEnable indication, the cell served by the O-DU may update its unavailable resource block information: e.g., {startRB: 161; numberOfBlockedRBs: 56}. Herein, the specific values of parameters such as startRB and numberOfBlockedRBs are only examples, and in practical applications, they may have any suitable value corresponding to a bandwidth/resource block/resource block group with a specific size. In a base station scheduler, once it receives the information of unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups, the base station scheduler skips these unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups during scheduling. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9, the cell bandwidth of this cell is 50M, of which the available bandwidth is 40M. If there are no high-priority users on the cell, the final dynamic spectrum allocation result of the cell will be a channel indication information list {1, 2, 3}, and the allocated cell bandwidth will be 30MHz.

Steps S301 to S305 are the configuration process of the cell spectrum, and steps S306-S310 are the cell spectrum reconfiguration process initiated by the O-DU.

Step S306: the O-DU determines that the spectrum of the cell needs to be reconfigured based on the cell's traffic, interference, RSSI, etc. Step S307: the O-DU transmits a carrier deactivation indication to the O-RU, and the O-RU deactivates the carrier and transmits a message to the O-DU to synchronize a carrier deactivation result. Step S308: the O-DU transmits a spectrum reconfiguration request message to the SMO. Step S309: the RIC will output a new spectrum allocation result based on the trained dynamic spectrum allocation AI model based on the current cell traffic, cell interference, information about whether there are high-priority users in the cell, etc., and the SMO may provide an updated spectrum configuration for the cells in the O-DU through the message in step S309. Step S310: the O-DU provides carrier configuration to the O-RU according to the new cell spectrum configuration, where the carrier configuration includes but is not limited to carrier bandwidth, absolute frequency center, etc.

When the cell traffic changes frequently, RIC will recommend spectrum adapted to the cell's traffic requirements to O-DU. However, in the ORAN architecture, both O-DU and O-RU need to be configured with spectrum information, including bandwidth and absolute frequency center, etc. When RIC recommends new spectrum information to O-DU, the absolute frequency center and bandwidth will change, and both O-DU and O-RU need to synchronize the bandwidth and the absolute frequency center. As shown in FIG. 10, in order to prevent the impact of M-plane transmission latency, the carrier needs to be deactivated to achieve synchronization configuration between O-DU and O-RU. For those users who are served solely by unlicensed spectrum cells (e.g., CBRS/NR-U standalone networking architecture), carrier deactivation will result in disruption of user service; and for those users whose connection use unlicensed spectrum cells only as secondary serving cells (such as a scell in carrier aggregation scenario), carrier deactivation will increase connected UEs latency; Both scenarios will affect the Qos for connected UEs..

FIG. 11a shows a method of recommending a dynamic spectrum allocation scheme with Bandwidth Part set (BWP set) information based on RIC predicted traffic, interference and other information.

Steps 1101 & 1102: When RIC predicts that cell traffic, interference or other factors affecting channel allocation results change frequently, RIC may recommend a set of cell-level BWPsets and switching time (SwitchTime) to the cell based on whether the cell has a high priority user, predicted traffic, interference and other factors. The O-DU can then switch the BWP according to the switching time, thereby reducing the number of cell spectrum reallocations.

Step 1103: the O-DU provides carrier configuration to the O-RU according to the cell configuration, where the carrier configuration includes but is not limited to one or more of information such as carrier bandwidth (e.g., BW of the carrier), absolute frequency center (e.g., NR-ARFCN of the carrier), etc.

Step 1104: the O-DU adaptively switches the cell-level bandwidth parts according to one or more of the switching time or real-time traffic, interference, etc.

Step 1105: After the O-DU switches the bandwidth parts of the cell, it needs to transmit Downlink Control Information to the users (UEs) in the cell to indicate the location of the switched bandwidth part.

FIG. 11b shows a method of re-recommending a dynamic spectrum allocation scheme with BWP set information based on one or more of allocated spectrum resources, RIC predicted traffic, interference and other information.

Steps 1111 & 1112: when the cell served by the O-DU determines that all BWPs in the cell-level bandwidth part set (BWPSet) are performing poorly (e.g., require reconfiguration) (step 1111), the O-DU may transmit a BWPSet reconfiguration request to the SMO/RIC (step 1112).

Step 1113: RIC will re-recommend a set of cell-level BWP sets and switching times to the cell based on the allocated spectrum resources according to factors such as whether the cell has a high priority user, predicted traffic, interference, etc., without changing the current bandwidth and absolute frequency center, thereby further reducing possibility of cell spectrum reconfiguration. For example, the RIC may transmit a BWP reconfiguration message to the O-DU.

Step 1114: after the cell-level BWP set of the O-DU is reconfigured, DCIneeds to be transmitted to the users (UEs) in the cell to indicate the reconfigured bandwidth part location.

FIG. 11c shows another embodiment of the present disclosure, that is, a relevant flowchart in which bandwidth part set indication is carried in an intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme in the O-RAN scheme (taking the intelligent dynamic spectrum access scheme generated by the Non-RT RIC as an example). In a scenario where a cell frequently switches cell spectrum information due to frequent changes in information such as traffic or interference, this example allows RIC to recommend a dynamic spectrum allocation result with a bandwidth part set based on long-term predictions of information such as traffic and interference; after receiving the result, the O-DU can switch bandwidth parts, thereby reducing the data interruption caused by carrier deactivation/activation caused by cell spectrum reconfiguration, and improving the QoS of the cell users. The method described in conjunction with FIG. 11c is only an example, and some steps may be omitted or some new steps may be added therein.

Step S401: the SMO entity collects information related to a dynamic spectrum access scheme. Referring to steps S101 to S106 in FIG. 2, the SMO entity may request and collect related data or related information through the O1 interface. The related data or related information may include one or more of: O-RU output power (including maximum output power and minimum output power), O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, TDD/ FDD configuration information of a cell, cell signal strength indication threshold, cell channel preference and cell type (type information of a cell connected to an O-RU), etc. In some embodiments, the requested data or information may include above-mentioned information of one or more O-RUs and O-DUs.

Step S402: an AI/ML model (which may be referred to as a first model herein) is trained, deployed, activated and inferred, and a spectrum allocation result is generated. This embodiment takes the AI/ML model deployed on Non-RT RIC as an example, but the AI/ML model can also be deployed on other entities. Step S403: the SMO provides the O-DU with the spectrum allocation result, which may be included in, but not limited to, the cell configuration information. Non-RT RIC and SMO are on the same physical or logical entity. Referring to steps S107 to S113 in FIG. 2, based on the collected dynamic spectrum access related data (e.g., by using the collected dynamic spectrum access related data as training data), the AI/ML model is trained by Non-RT RIC. The input data of the AI/ML model is information about dynamic spectrum access scheme related data. After training, the AI/ML model determines (predicts or infers) and/or outputs information such as spectrum allocation modes and/or spectrum allocation bandwidths and/or spectrum allocation frequency bands (e.g., it may be referred to as dynamic spectrum allocation information herein). The trained AI/ML model deployed at the Non-RT RIC may be activated for prediction or inference. The dynamic spectrum allocation information, as the output of the AI/ML model, may include one or more of the following information: identifier information of a cell, channel indication information of a cell, channel availability indication information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, bandwidth part set information recommended for a cell, bandwidth information of an O-RU carrier, absolute frequency center information of an O-RU carrier, etc. The dynamic spectrum related information, as the output of the AI/ML model, can help the SMO configure the O-DU. For example, the SMO can transmit a message to the O-DU in step S403, and the message may carry information such as identifier information of a cell, channel indication information of a cell, channel availability indication information of a cell, absolute frequency center information of a cell, bandwidth information of a cell, guard bandwidth information of a cell, cell-level bandwidth part set information, etc.

The cell-level bandwidth part set information includes, but is not limited to, the following forms or formats.

The bandwidth part set may include one or more bandwidth parts. For each bandwidth part, a starting resource block location (e.g., resource block starting location) and a resource block size (e.g., the number of resource blocks) of the bandwidth part may be used to indicate the specific resource block locations of the bandwidth part, and a switching time may be used to indicate a specific switching time point of the bandwidth part. If the bandwidth part set information contains a switching time, the O-DU must switch the corresponding bandwidth part according to the switching time; and if the bandwidth part set information does not contain a switching time, it means that the O-DU can switch the bandwidth part at any time according to its own demand. Examples of data models for bandwidth part sets may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Where "id" indicates the identifier of a bandwidth part (which may also be called Bandwidth Part (BWP)), "StartRB" indicates the starting location of the bandwidth part, "NumberOfRBs" indicates the resource block locations of the bandwidth part (i.e., the specific number of resource blocks the bandwidth part contains), "SwitchingTime" indicates a switching time of the bandwidth part.

Step S404: O-DU updates a list of unavailable resource blocks/resource block groups according to the received cell channel indication information and channel availability indication information to indicate resource blocks/resource block groups that are unavailable to the cell scheduler during scheduling, thereby preventing cells from scheduling on unavailable channel spectrum.

Step S405: the O-DU provides carrier configuration to the O-RU according to the cell configuration, where the carrier configuration includes but is not limited to information such as carrier bandwidth, absolute frequency center, etc.

Step S406: the O-DU adaptively switches the cell-level bandwidth parts according to one or more of the switching time or real-time traffic, interference, etc. After the O-DU switches the bandwidth parts of the cell, the O-DU needs to transmit downlink control information to the users (UEs) in the cell to indicate the location of the switched bandwidth part. Since the cell-level bandwidth part information is used to indicate the range of resource blocks of a cell available for scheduling, the O-RU does not need to know the bandwidth part information of the cell, thereby eliminating the need for synchronization between the O-DU and the O-RU. Therefore, when the O-DU switches bandwidth parts, the carrier does not need to be deactivated. In addition, as shown in FIG. 12a and FIG. 12b, compared with the existing user-level bandwidth part set (e.g., Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) is required to indicate BWPs of three UEs (i.e., UE1, UE2, and UE3)), the cell-level bandwidth part set (e.g., PDCCH is required to indicate only one cell BWP) may also reduce the overhead of the downlink physical control channel, thereby improving the overall throughput of the cell.

Steps S401-S406 are a configuration process of cell frequency spectrum and a switching process of bandwidth parts. Steps S407-S410 are a process in which RIC reallocates bandwidth part set information within the allocated frequency band range to update available bandwidth part resource allocation of the cell, thereby further reducing frequency spectrum reallocation times and improving user quality of service.

Steps S407 and S408: when the cell served by the O-DU determines that the bandwidth part performance in all (or part) of the cell-level bandwidth part sets is poor based on one or more of the indicators or information such as traffic, interference and signal strength, etc., the O-DU will initiate a cell-level bandwidth part set reconfiguration request to the SMO.

Step S409: RIC recommends updated cell-level bandwidth part set information within the allocated frequency band range (that is, a bandwidth part set reconfiguration result) to SMO based on information such as interference, traffic and the like from all cells. The SMO will reconfigure the spectrum information of the cells served by the O-DU. Once a cell-level bandwidth part set is successfully configured, the O-DU needs to transmit downlink control information to all users in the cell to indicate the updated bandwidth part location. In step S410, the RIC detects that it is impossible to recommend a cell-level bandwidth part set satisfying cell traffic and interference requirements within the allocated frequency band range, and then the SMO transmits a cell-level bandwidth part set reallocation failure response. Then, the O-DU may initiate a cell spectrum reallocation process according to steps S306-S310.

According to steps S401-S410, FIGs. 13-15 gives use cases in which the RIC adaptively recommend spectrum allocation results with cell-level bandwidth parts.

Assume a total of 150MHz of unlicensed spectrum and a measurement bandwidth of 10MHz. That is, there is a total of 150MHz of unlicensed spectrum, with a measurement bandwidth of 10MHz. The channel requirement is RSSI >-90dBm to ensure channel quality, and information related to the presence of high priority users is included in the cell report.

At time t0, RIC predicts the cell prediction traffic information at times t0, t1, and t2 (times t0, t1, and t2 are shown in FIG. 13), and infers the bandwidths required for the traffic for each time period. Assuming that the bandwidth required for period t0-t1 is 10MHz, the bandwidth required for period t1-t2 is 40MHz, and the bandwidth required for period t2-t3 is 60MHz, then RIC may decide to allocate a 60MHz bandwidth to the cell. Since there are no enough continuous bandwidths to meet the requirement of the cell, according to the method of the present disclosure, RIC may recommend a configuration as shown in FIG. 14 to the cell. In this case, the spectrum configuration result is:{channelIndex: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7; channelEnable: 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1}; and the recommended bandwidth part set result is as follows:

The O-DU will switch to corresponding bandwidth parts according to the switching time corresponding to each bandwidth part in the bandwidth part set, for example, switching to a first bandwidth part with id = 1 and resource block location of {starting resource block (StartRB) = 24; number of resource blocks (NumberOfRBs) = 27} at switching time t0; switching to a second bandwidth part with id = 2 and resource block location of { starting resource block (StartRB)= 0; number of resource blocks (NumberOfRBs) = 133} at switching time t1, and so on. It should be understood that the specific values of the above parameters are only examples. In actual applications, each parameter can select any suitable value according to actual conditions.

If at time t3, the O-DU considers that all channel bandwidth parts in the cell's bandwidth part set have poor performance, RIC will further reconfigure a cell-level bandwidth part set based on information such as predicted traffic, interference, etc. RIC predicts the predicted traffic information of the cell at times t3, t4, and t5 (times t3, t4, and t5 are shown in FIG. 13), and infers the bandwidths required for the traffic of each time period. Assuming it is inferred that the bandwidth required for period t3-t4 is 30MHz, the bandwidth required for period t4-t5 is 50MHz, and the bandwidth required for period t5-t6 is 50MHz, which are all smaller than the previously allocated bandwidth of 60MHz, RIC will reallocate bandwidth part set information within the allocated frequency band range.

RIC recommends configuring the cell as shown in FIG. 15. In this case, the recommended bandwidth part set result is as follows:

The O-DU will switch to corresponding bandwidth parts according to the switching time corresponding to each bandwidth part in the bandwidth part set.

At the O1 interface, in order to define the input and output to the RIC AI dynamic spectrum allocation model, a data model is defined in the following format, but not limited thereto.

Herein, "assignedOruList" indicates the list of O-RUs mapped/connected to a cell, "ruInstanceId" indicates the identifier of an O-RU; "allocatedBandlist" indicates a list of bandwidths allocated for the cell, "channelIndex" indicates channel locations, "channelEnable" indicates channel availability; "cellChannelPreference" indicates cell channel preference; "RSSIThreshold" indicates the channel quality required by the cell; "UEPriority" indicates whether the cell has high priority users; "blockedRBList" indicates locations of resource blocks/resource block groups which are unavailable for scheduling, and the corresponding "id" indicates the identifier of the locations of the resource blocks unavailable for scheduling, "startRB" and "startRBG" indicate the starting location of the resource blocks/resource block groups which are unavailable for scheduling, "NumberOfBlockedRBs" and "NumberOfBlockedRBGs" indicate the number of resource blocks/resource block groups which are unavailable for scheduling in order to determine the specific locations of the resource blocks/resource block groups unavailable for scheduling; "BWPSet" indicates a recommended cell-level bandwidth part set, and the corresponding "id" indicates an identifier of a bandwidth part, "StartRB" indicates a starting location of the bandwidth part, "NumberOfRBs" indicates resource block locations of the bandwidth part, and "SwitchingTime" indicates a switching time for the bandwidth part.

Next, FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of a method 500 performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 16, a method 500 performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include: in step S501, transmitting a first message to a second node, wherein the first message includes first request information for first dynamic spectrum access related data for performing dynamic spectrum access for a third node; in step S502, receiving a second message from the second node, wherein the second message includes requested information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data; and in step S503, training a first model based on information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data, wherein the first model is trained to determine dynamic spectrum allocation information based on input information of second dynamic spectrum access related data.

FIG. 17a shows a flowchart of a method 600 performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 17a, a method 600 performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include: in step S601, receiving a first message from a first node, wherein the first message includes first request information for first dynamic spectrum access related data for performing dynamic spectrum access for a third node; and in step S602, transmitting a second message to the first node, wherein the second message includes requested information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data. In some implementations, information of the first dynamic spectrum access related data is used to train a first model. In some implementations, the first model is trained to determine dynamic spectrum allocation information based on input information of second dynamic spectrum access related data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the dynamic spectrum allocation information includes cell-level bandwidth part set information, wherein the cell-level bandwidth part set information comprises starting resource block location, resource block size, and switching time of one or more bandwidth parts.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting a seventh message to the third node, wherein the seventh message includes third request information for requesting the third node to perform real-time data measurement, wherein data requested for the real-time data measurement include one or more of: open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), and hardware component power consumed of O-RU (information of power consumed by each hardware component of an O-RU).

FIG. 17b shows a flowchart of a method 1700 performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 17b, a method 1700 performed by a first node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include: in step S1701, performing dynamic spectrum allocation based on a first model; and in step S1702, transmitting a dynamic spectrum allocation result to a second node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result includes cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information includes indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information includes identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available.

FIG. 17c shows a flowchart of a method 1710 performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 17c, a method 1710 performed by a second node in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include: in step S1711, receiving a dynamic spectrum allocation result from a first node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result includes cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information includes indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information includes identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available; and in step S1712, updating an unavailable resource block list based on the received dynamic spectrum allocation result.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the receiving a dynamic spectrum allocation result from a first node includes: receiving a cell configuration message from the first node, wherein the cell configuration message includes the dynamic spectrum allocation result.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further includes: transmitting downlink control information to a user equipment (UE), wherein the downlink control information is used to indicate a bandwidth part after switching.

It should be understood that methods 500, 600, 1700, 1710, etc. according to embodiments of the present disclosure may also include any methods or steps described in conjunction with various examples, aspects, drawings, etc. of the present disclosure.

Next, FIG. 18 shows a schematic diagram of a node 700 in a wireless communication system according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 18, a node 700 (e.g., a first node and/or a second node) according to embodiments of the present disclosure may include a transceiver 710 and a processor 720. The transceiver 710 can be configured to transmit and receive signals. For example, the transceiver 710 may include communication circuitry. The processor 720 may be coupled to transceiver 710 and may be configured to (e.g., control transceiver 710 to) perform methods as performed by any node (e.g., the first node and/or the second node) according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Herein, a processor may also be referred to as a controller. Herein, a base station may also be referred to as a node or node device.

The processor 720 may include various processing circuits and/or a plurality of processors. For example, the term "processor" used in the present disclosure, including claims, may include various processing circuits including at least one processor, and one or more processors of the at least one processor may be configured to perform various functions individually and/or collectively as described below in a distributed manner. As used herein, when it is described that the "processor", the "at least one processor", and the "one or more processors" are configured to perform various functions, these terms encompass, by way of example and without limitation thereto, situations where one processor performs a part of the recited functions and another processor(s) performs another part of the recited functions, and also situations where one processor is capable of performing all of the recited functions. Additionally, the at least one processor may include a combination of processors that perform various functions as enumerated and/or disclosed, for example, in a distributed manner. The at least one processor may execute program instructions to achieve or perform various functions.

Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-readable instructions which, when executed by a processor, implement any method according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as computer-readable codes embodied on a computer-readable recording medium from a specific perspective. A computer-readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data readable by a computer system. Examples of computer-readable recording media may include read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage device, carrier wave (e.g., data transmission via the Internet), etc. Computer-readable recording media can be distributed by computer systems connected via a network, and thus computer-readable codes can be stored and executed in a distributed manner. Furthermore, functional programs, codes and code segments for implementing various embodiments of the present disclosure can be easily explained by those skilled in the art to which the embodiments of the present disclosure are applied.

It will be understood that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. The software may be stored as program instructions or computer-readable codes executable on a processor on a non-transitory computer-readable medium. Examples of non-transitory computer-readable recording media include magnetic storage media (such as ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, etc.) and optical recording media (such as CD-ROM, digital video disk (DVD), etc.). Non-transitory computer-readable recording media may also be distributed on computer systems coupled to a network, so that computer-readable codes are stored and executed in a distributed manner. The medium can be read by a computer, stored in a memory, and executed by a processor. Various embodiments may be implemented by a computer or a portable terminal including a controller and a memory, and the memory may be an example of a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium suitable for storing program (s) with instructions for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The present disclosure may be realized by a program with code for concretely implementing the apparatus and method described in the claims, which is stored in a machine (or computer)-readable storage medium. The program may be electronically carried on any medium, such as a communication signal transmitted via a wired or wireless connection, and the present disclosure suitably includes its equivalents.

What has been described above is only the specific implementation of the present disclosure, but the scope of protection of the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Anyone who is familiar with this technical field may make various changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present disclosure, and these changes or substitutions should be covered within the scope of protection of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present disclosure should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

A method performed by a first node in a wireless communication system, comprising:

performing dynamic spectrum allocation based on a trained model; and

transmitting a dynamic spectrum allocation result to a second node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result comprises cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information comprises indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information comprises identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available.
The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting a dynamic spectrum allocation result to a second node comprises:

transmitting a cell configuration message to the second node, wherein the cell configuration message includes the dynamic spectrum allocation result.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result further comprises cell-level bandwidth part set information, wherein the cell-level bandwidth part set information comprises starting resource block location, resource block size, and switching time of one or more bandwidth parts.
The method of claim 1, wherein

the cell channel indication information and the cell channel availability indication information is used for the second node to update an unavailable resource block list.
The method of claim 3, wherein

the cell-level bandwidth part set information is used for the second node to switch the one or more bandwidth parts based on the switching time.
The method of claim 1, wherein the performing dynamic spectrum allocation based on a trained model comprises:

receiving dynamic spectrum access related data from the second node; and

using the trained model for dynamic spectrum allocation based on the dynamic spectrum access related data.
The method of claim 6, wherein the dynamic spectrum access related data comprises at least one of:

open radio access network radio unit (O-RU) output power, O-RU received power, O-RU received signal strength indication (RSSI), cell traffic, cell interference, O-RU type, cell interference tolerance threshold, O-RU reception sensitivity, hardware component power consumed of O-RU, O-RU supported operation bandwidth, O-RU supported frequency band, O-RU supported maximum bandwidth, carrier supported maximum bandwidth, O-RU supported maximum number of carriers, whether there is a high-priority user in a cell, mapping relationship between O-RU and cell, cell time division duplexing (TDD)/frequency division duplexing (FDD) configuration, cell channel preference, continuous bandwidth preference, cell type.
A method performed by a second node in a wireless communication system, comprising:

receiving a dynamic spectrum allocation result from a first node, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result comprises cell channel indication information and cell channel availability indication information, wherein the cell channel indication information comprises indicators of one or more channels to which a cell is allocated, and wherein the cell channel availability indication information comprises identification information indicating whether the one or more channels are available; and

updating an unavailable resource block l t based on the received dynamic spectrum allocation result.
The method of claim 8, wherein the receiving a dynamic spectrum allocation result from a first node comprises:

receiving a cell configuration message from the first node, wherein the cell configuration message includes the dynamic spectrum allocation result.
The method of claim 8, wherein the dynamic spectrum allocation result further comprises cell-level bandwidth part set information, wherein the cell-level bandwidth part set information comprises starting resource block location, resource block size, and switching time of one or more bandwidth parts.
The method of claim 10, further comprising:

switching the one or more bandwidth parts based on the switching time.
The method of claim 10 or 11, further comprising:

detecting whether the cell-level bandwidth part set information needs to be reconfigured; and

transmitting a bandwidth part set reconfiguration request to the first node if reconfiguration is required.
The method of claim 12, wherein the detecting whether the cell-level bandwidth part set information needs to be reconfigured comprises:

detecting whether the cell-level bandwidth part set information needs to be reconfigured based on cell traffic related information and/or cell interference related information.
A first node comprising:

at least one transceiver;

memory, including one or more storage media, storing instructions; and

at least one processor including processing circuitry, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the first node to perform the method of any one of claims 1-7.
A second node comprising:

at least one transceiver;

memory, including one or more storage media, storing instructions; and

at least one processor including processing circuitry, wherein the instructions, when executed by the at least one processor individually or collectively, cause the second node to perform the method of any one of claims 8-13.