TWI737626B - Sliceable radio access network architecture for wireless communications - Google Patents

Abstract

Embodiments provide an electronic device to implement a radio access network (RAN) control entity, the electronic device comprising circuitry to identify one or more vertical slices of a RAN, the vertical slices relating to vertical market segments of the RAN, identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, the horizontal slices relating to network hierarchy segments of the RAN, and slice the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices, and radio frequency (RF) circuitry coupled with the circuitry, the RF circuitry to send and/or receive one or more signals in accordance with the vertical and/or horizontal slices. Embodiments also provide a radio access network (RAN) control entity and a computer readable medium to implement a radio access network (RAN) control entity.

Description

Sliceable radio access network architecture for wireless communication

The embodiments described herein generally relate to the field of wireless communication systems, and specifically relate to the management of radio access networks of wireless communication systems.

In the fourth-generation long-term evolution (4G-LTE) wireless communication system, there is a trend of heterogeneity in network architecture and applications. Examples of these trends are the development of small cell and relay networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication networks, and machine type communication (MTC). Entering the fifth generation (5G) wireless communication system, it is expected to improve the management of wireless resources.

190‧‧‧Horizontal network slice

195‧‧‧Horizontal network slicing

200‧‧‧Second view

210‧‧‧Macro Network Layer

220‧‧‧Mini network layer part

230‧‧‧Device-to-device network layer

240‧‧‧Personal Area Network (PAN) network layer

300‧‧‧Chart

302‧‧‧Internet level

304‧‧‧Radio resources

306‧‧‧Vertical slice

308‧‧‧Horizontal section

410‧‧‧Base station part

412‧‧‧Upstream/core network side communication function

414‧‧‧Base station calculation function

416‧‧‧Downstream/wireless/device side communication function

420‧‧‧Portable part

422‧‧‧Typical cellular wireless communication link

424‧‧‧area calculation function

426‧‧‧Downstream communication link

430‧‧‧Wearable part

432‧‧‧Single upstream communication link

434‧‧‧Limited area processing resource function

410'‧‧‧Base station

414'‧‧‧Processing resources

420'‧‧‧Portable device

424'‧‧‧Processing resources

430'‧‧‧Wearable device

500‧‧‧Schematic

502‧‧‧Filling type

504‧‧‧Filling type

506‧‧‧Filling type

510‧‧‧RAN control entity

602‧‧‧c-Plane function part

604‧‧‧m-Plane function part

606‧‧‧u-plane function part

610‧‧‧Macro BS

704‧‧‧m-plane

706‧‧‧c-plane

710‧‧‧RAN Controller

830‧‧‧L2 control function part

835‧‧‧L1 control function part

840‧‧‧L2 function part

845‧‧‧L1 control function part

850‧‧‧L2 function part

855‧‧‧L1 control function part

860‧‧‧L2 function part

865‧‧‧L1 control function part

930‧‧‧L2 control function part

940‧‧‧L2 control function part

1000‧‧‧Method

1200‧‧‧Electronic device

1210‧‧‧Application circuit

1220‧‧‧Baseband circuit

1221‧‧‧The second generation (2G) baseband processor

1222‧‧‧The third generation (3G) baseband processor

1223‧‧‧Fourth generation (4G) baseband processor

1224‧‧‧Other baseband processors

1225‧‧‧Memory/Storage

1226‧‧‧Central Processing Unit (CPU)

1227‧‧‧Audio Digital Signal Processor (DSP)

1230‧‧‧Radio Frequency (RF) Circuit

1231‧‧‧Mixer circuit

1232‧‧‧Power amplifier circuit

1233‧‧‧Filter circuit

1234‧‧‧Synthesizer circuit

1240‧‧‧Front End Module (FEM) Circuit

1250‧‧‧antenna

1300‧‧‧Hardware Resources

1304‧‧‧ Peripheral devices

1306‧‧‧Database

1308‧‧‧Internet

1310‧‧‧Processor

1312‧‧‧Processor

1314‧‧‧Processor

1320‧‧‧Memory/Storage Device

1330‧‧‧Communication Resources

1340‧‧‧Bus

1350‧‧‧Command

With reference to the drawings, according to the following description of the embodiments, the aspects, features and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention will become apparent, where the same symbols represent the same elements, and where: Figure 1 shows vertical and horizontal network slices The first view of a broad concept; Fig. 2 shows a second view of a part of the wireless network of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 shows how the radio access network (RAN) can be cut into horizontal and Vertical slicing; Fig. 4 shows a more detailed example of horizontal slicing in a sliceable wireless network architecture according to the example; Fig. 5 shows how the RAN control entity according to an embodiment can control the horizontal and vertical slicing of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 shows the implementation according to the implementation The first distributed example of the RAN control entity of the example; FIG. 7 shows the second centralized example of the RAN control entity according to the embodiment; FIG. 8 shows the first plane example of how the RAN control entity controls the slice of the network according to the embodiment Figure 9 shows a second layer example of how the RAN control entity controls the network slice according to the embodiment; Figure 10 shows the first exemplary method of managing the radio access network according to the embodiment; Figure 11 shows the management of the radio storage according to the embodiment A second exemplary method of fetching a network; FIG. 12 shows an example of a RAN control entity according to an embodiment; FIG. 13 shows a diagram of hardware resources according to an embodiment.

[Content and Implementation of the Invention]

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. In different drawings The same reference symbols can be used to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for the purpose of explanation and not limitation, specific details such as specific structure, architecture, interface, technology, etc. are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the present invention. However, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art who benefit from the present invention that various aspects of the scope of the patent application can be practiced in other paradigms other than these specific details. In some cases, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary details.

In the fourth-generation long-term evolution (4G-LTE) and advanced/professional LTE (LTE-Advanced/Pro) wireless communication networks, there is a trend of heterogeneity in network architecture and applications. Examples of these trends are the development of small cell and relay networks, device-to-device (D2D) communication networks (also known as near field services), and machine type communication (MTC). A small cell can be considered as any form of cell smaller than a traditional macro eNB/base station, such as a micro/pico/femto cell. Entering the fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication network, the trend of heterogeneity may become more prominent, and it is expected that methods and devices for controlling wireless resources will be appropriately improved. For example, because 5G wireless communication networks may be expected to serve various applications (with various transportation types and requirements), networks and user equipment (with various communication and computing capabilities), and different from more traditional voice services (for example, through The voice of LTE, the commercial market (i.e. use cases) of VoLTE and mobile broadband (MBB) are expected to provide control over each of these use cases so that it is possible to optimize or at least improve the use of wireless resources.

The embodiments of the present invention are generally related to wireless communication networks. A slice of the line access network (RAN) architecture. The RAN can be part of a wireless communication network that implements one or more radio access technologies (RAT), and can be considered to reside on a mobile phone, smart phone, connected laptop, or any remote control (or simply storable). Take the location of the user equipment (UE) of the machine and provide the connection to the core network (CN) serving the wireless communication network. The RAN can be implemented using silicon chips residing in UEs and/or base stations such as evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and base stations that form a cellular-based wireless communication network/system. Examples of RAN include but are not limited to: GRAN (GSM radio access network); GERAN (essentially GRAN enabled by EDGE); UTRAN (UMTS radio access network); and E-UTRAN (LTE or advanced /Professional LTE, high-speed and low-latency radio access network).

The embodiment described here discusses the general architecture of network slicing in a radio access network of a wireless communication network such as, but not limited to, a 5G wireless communication network. Specifically, the embodiment may include the concepts of horizontal and vertical network slicing. Vertical slicing can include slicing radio access networks according to vertical markets, where vertical markets can include single/specific types of communications (that is, can be defined as a single or specific use case for communications) and many other than existing ones. And new types of communication can be performed through future wireless communication networks, especially including radio access networks. Commercial markets that can be provided through wireless communication networks can also be called vertical markets. Existing types include mobile broadband (MBB) and voice (VoLTE), while new types of communications can include new types of connection services and use cases, such as machine type communications (MTC), personal area networks, dedicated health networks, and machine types. Device-to-machine (M2M), enhanced MBB (eMBB), time-critical communications, vehicle communications (V2X) (including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)), etc. The definition of a vertical market is not restricted, and any existing or future logical separation (ie, separation, division, etc.) covering the physical radio access network is used for wireless communications dedicated to specific purposes or types of communications. In some examples, there may be multiple physical radio access networks in use, and each physical radio access network is divided into logically separate radio access networks.

Taking into account the availability, latency, and power requirements of the wireless communication network required for each specific use case, as well as the impact on battery life, reliability, capacity, security, and speed, the proposed network slice can be programmable And it is highly scalable and flexible.

Network slicing is considered to be one of the key technologies to meet various needs and various services and applications expected to be supported in 5G communication networks. This is because in wireless communication technology, it is becoming more and more challenging to further improve the spectrum efficiency of the radio link level. Therefore, new ways have been found to build future wireless networks and devices served by these wireless networks to meet Increasing demand for capacity. To achieve these goals, 5G and future generations of wireless networks, especially wireless devices that serve or are served by those wireless networks, are evolving, regarding the combination of computing and communication, and providing end-to-end solutions. This is a paradigm shift from previous generations where technological development mainly focused on single-layer communication.

To provide increased capacity in wireless networks, they can be sliced. This may be about combining the traditional large, single, The frequency network is sliced (that is, logically divided/separated) into multiple virtual networks to serve vertical industries and applications in a more cost-effective and resource-efficient manner. Each network slice can have a different network architecture, as well as different application, control, packet and signal processing capabilities and capacities in order to achieve the best return on investment. Instead of deploying new dedicated wireless networks for the vertical market, new vertical slices (ie, industrial or service types) can be added to existing slicable wireless networks at any time. Therefore, vertical network slicing provides a practical means to isolate traffic from the standpoint of vertical applications from other general mobile broadband services, thereby actually avoiding or significantly simplifying traditional QoS engineering problems. Wireless network slicing can include slicing in both the core network and the radio access network (ie, it is an end-to-end solution).

In 5G wireless networks and beyond, network capacity scaling may no longer be as uniform as previous generations. For example, when the wireless network is closer to the user, the scaling factor can be higher, and when we move deeper into the wireless network's infrastructure, the scaling factor is lower. This non-uniform scaling may be the result of an enhanced user experience caused by the significantly increased sensing capabilities (and/or processing resources) available at wireless devices that utilize wireless networks. Unlike previous generations of wireless networks, where networks are mainly used as data pipelines, which scale evenly (but individually) from end to end as the air interface improves, 5G and future wireless network generations can at least partially depend on In the information network, it includes the various (heterogeneous and/or homogeneous) computing, network and storage capabilities of the wireless network and the wireless devices served/served.

For example, the overall wireless network can continue to expand rapidly, but the computing and network at the edge of the network can grow faster, thus enabling It can handle user data traffic at the edge of the wireless network (so-called edge cloud applications). The user equipment may no longer be a "terminal" that simply terminates the communication link. Instead, they can become a new generation of mobile or fixed network nodes for new generations of consumer devices, machines, and things. For example, laptops, tablets, smart phones, home gateways, or any other wireless network device (or a wireless network device or part of a component device that is formed or sold to consumers) can become a device with many deployments in The computing and network center of a network cluster of devices or things around it. For example, it can form a personal area network (PAN). Many such mobile or fixed wireless network clusters can be formed in 5G and beyond. Devices that can communicate with each other or directly communicate with fixed networks, and have the ability to be offloaded to larger form factor platforms or edge cloud base stations ( That is, entities in wireless networks with larger processing resources, whether directly or only available at that time, are called low-level networks and new types of networks. This can be achieved across many devices including edge cloud, through the virtualization platform to achieve the best mobile computing and communication.

This new type of wireless network scaling can be driven by many factors. For example, since device sensing is usually regional, the processing of the sensed data can be regional, and the decisions and actions on the sensed data become regional. This trend can be further amplified by the proliferation of wearable devices and the Internet of Things. For example, as machines begin to play a larger role in communication than human users, the speed of the entire communication link can be increased.

The end-to-end definition will be ignored because more and more communication links are located near users and user devices. Therefore, it is proposed to provide a cloud architecture framework that can be integrated with the data center and provide closer to the terminal. The edge cloud of regional intelligence and services of users or devices. For example, this may be because as wireless networks and systems are deployed in enterprises, homes, offices, factories, and automobiles, edge cloud servers become more important for performance and information privacy and security. These latter factors may be driven by users' (and government's) increasing concerns about privacy and security. In addition, data centers deep into the fixed network may continue to grow rapidly, because many existing services can take advantage of a centralized architecture, using a new generation of portable and wearable devices, drones, industrial machines, self-driving cars, etc. Better services have accelerated faster growth in communication and computing power at the edge of the network and the area around users.

The newly introduced network slicing concept, especially the network slicing concept that provides a wireless network system architecture with end-to-end (E2E) vertical and horizontal network slicing, can be applied to the air interface, radio access network (RAN) and core The network (CN) introduces changes to enable a wireless network system with E2E network slicing function.

Simply put, according to the processing needs of these devices over time and space/location, horizontal slicing allows devices across the serving wireless network or devices that are being served by a wireless network to share computing resources. To enhance device capabilities.

Horizontal network slicing is designed to adapt to the new trend of traffic scaling and cause edge cloud computing and computing offload: computing resources in base stations and portable devices can be sliced horizontally, and these slices and wearable devices can be integrated in Together to form a virtual computing platform through the new wireless air interface design as described in this article, in order to significantly enhance the future The computing power of portable and wearable devices. Horizontal slicing enhances device capabilities and enhances user experience.

In the most general terms, network slicing can be considered as the use of virtualization technology to construct, slice and organize the computing and communication resources of the physical wireless network infrastructure into one or more logically separated radio access networks. Ways to enable flexible support for the realization of multiple use cases. For example, when performing network slicing during operation, a physical wireless network can be divided into multiple logical radio access networks, each logical radio access network for specific needs and/or specific applications/services (ie, using Case) and architecture and optimization. Therefore, in terms of operation and traffic flow, network slicing can be defined as self-contained, and can have its own network architecture, engineering mechanism, and network provisioning. The network slicing proposed here can simplify the establishment and operation of network slicing, and allow the functional reuse and resource sharing (ie, provide efficiency) of the physical wireless network infrastructure, while still providing enough for wireless devices served by the wireless network Wireless network resources (communication and processing resources).

The goal of vertical slicing is to support multiple services and applications (ie use cases/communication types). Examples include but are not limited to: wireless/mobile broadband (MBB) communication; extreme mobile broadband (E-MBB) communication; real-time use cases, such as industrial control communications, machine-to-machine communication (MTC/MTC1); non-real-time use cases, such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensor communication or large-scale machine-to-machine communication (M-MTC/MTC2); ultra-reliable machine-to-machine communication (U-MTC); mobile edge cloud, such as cache and communication; car-to-car (V2V) communication; vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication; vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2X). That is to say, the present invention is about providing network slicing based on any communication type that can be easily defined/differentiated that can be performed over a wireless network. Vertical network slicing results in sharing resources between services and applications, and can avoid or simplify traditional QoS engineering problems.

At the same time, the purpose of horizontal network slicing is to expand the capabilities of devices in a wireless network, especially mobile devices that may have limitations on the available regional resources, and to enhance user experience. Horizontal network slicing transcends the physical boundaries of the hardware platform. Horizontal network slicing enables resource sharing between network nodes and devices, that is, high-capacity network nodes/devices can then share their resources (for example, computing, communication, storage) to enhance weaker networks The capabilities of the road node/device. A simple example can be the use of network base stations and/or smart phone mobile devices to supplement the processing and communication capabilities of wearable devices. The final result of horizontal network slicing can be to provide a new generation of mobile (for example, mobile) underlying network clusters, in which mobile terminals become mobile network nodes. Horizontal slicing can provide air resource sharing across wireless network nodes. The wireless network air interface used can be an integrated part and promoter of horizontal slices.

Vertical network slices and horizontal network slices can form independent slices. The end-to-end traffic flow in the vertical slice can be transmitted between the core network and the terminal device. The end-to-end traffic flow in the horizontal slice can be regional and transmitted between the client and the host of the mobile edge computing service.

In vertical slicing, each network node can implement similar functions between separate slices. The dynamic aspect of vertical slicing may mainly be resource slicing. However, in horizontal slicing, when slicing is supported, you can Create new functions at network nodes. For example, a portable device can use different functions to support different types of wearable devices. Therefore, the dynamic aspect of horizontal slicing can lie in network functions and resource division.

Figure 1 shows a first view of the broad concept of vertical and horizontal network slicing. A complete wireless network 100 is shown, including multiple vertical slices 110-140, each serving a different (or at least separate) vertical market, that is, use cases. In the example shown, vertical slice # 1 110 is used for mobile broadband communication, vertical slice # 2 120 is used for vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vertical slice # 3 130 is used for safety communication, and vertical slice # 4 140 is used for industrial control communication. These are only exemplary use cases, and the use cases that can be served by the sliceable wireless network service according to the present invention are practically unlimited.

The wireless network 100 includes a core network layer part 150 (for example, a control part with multiple servers/control entities/evolution node B, etc.), a radio access network part 160 (for example, including a plurality of base stations, an evolution node B, etc.), the device layer portion 170 (including, for example, portable devices such as UEs, vehicles, monitoring devices, industrial devices, etc.) and the personal/wearable layer portion 180 (including, for example, wearable devices, such as smart watches, health Display, Google Glass/Microsoft Hololens type device, etc.). The wearable part may only be about some use cases, as shown in the example of Fig. 1 only includes vertical slices #1 and #2.

In the vertical domain, physical computing/storage/radio processing resources in the network infrastructure (represented by servers and base stations 150/160) and physical radio resources (in terms of time, frequency, and space) are sliced, by Use cases (ie, communication types) form end-to-end vertical slices. In the horizontal domain, physical resources (in terms of computing, storage, and radio) in adjacent layers of the network hierarchy are sliced to form horizontal slices. In the example shown, there is a first horizontal network slice 190 operating between the RAN 160 and the device 170 layer, and a second horizontal network slice 195 operating between the device 170 and the wearable 180 layer. Any given device as a whole is or will be served by the wireless network 100, and in particular the RAN 160 (and the layers below) can operate on multiple network slices of another (or both) types . For example, smartphones can operate in vertical slices on mobile broadband (MBB) services, vertical slices on health care services, and horizontal slices that support wearable devices.

When network slicing is enabled in the RAN (including the air interface used in the RAN), in addition to meeting 5G requirements (e.g., data rate, latency, number of connections, etc.), other desired features of the RAN/air interface are used Enable network slicing, and generally 5G can include flexibility (ie, support for flexible radio resource allocation between slices); scalability (ie, easy expansion as new slices are added; and efficiency (for example, effective use of Radio and energy resources).

Horizontal slicing may include slicing network layers, for example, network connections and computing (ie, processing resources) capabilities. This can be done through any number of vertical slices served by the network 100, for example, everything from all vertical markets to one or more vertical slices. This is shown as the different widths of the two exemplary horizontal slices in Figure 1. Horizontal slice #1 190 is restricted to a single vertical slice, while horizontal slice #2 covers Cover the range with two vertical slices. Examples of network layers/layers may include, but are not limited to, a macro network layer, a micro/small cell network layer, a device-to-device communication layer, and so on. It can also include other network layers.

FIG. 2 shows a second view 200 of a portion of the wireless network 100 of FIG. 1. In particular, FIG. 2 shows an example of the RAN architecture of a specific slice, where the slice can span multiple levels of the traditional wireless network architecture. For example, the RAN architecture of each slice can be dynamically configured according to factors such as transportation type, transportation load, and QoS requirements. In the first example, slice #1 210 can only be operated on the macro cell level. And slice #2 220 only operates at the small cell level. Finally, slice #3 230 can be operated at the macro cell and small cell level. In another example, a slice (for example, slice #1 210) can open operations on small cells, and another slice (for example, slice #3 230) can close operations on some small cells.

Open operation/enable slice can be referred to as network slice open, and close operation/disable slice can be referred to as network slice close. A slice-specific RAN architecture may require slice-specific control plane/user plane operations, slice on/off operations, and slice-based processing for access control and load balancing, which will be discussed in more detail below.

Horizontal slicing including slicing of network/device computing and communication resources can realize computing offloading. Examples include a base station that uses slices of its computing resources to help the calculation of the user device, or a user device (for example, a smart phone) that uses slices of its computing resources to help the calculation of related wearable devices.

The embodiments of the present invention are not limited to vertical (market) or horizontal Any particular form of slice in the direction of (network hierarchy/layer).

The embodiments of the present invention can provide a management entity that can operate on the control plane (C plane) and/or the user plane (U plane), which can provide a management plane entity that can be used to coordinate horizontal or vertical ( Or multiple/combination or part) of different slice operations. The management entity can use a flat management architecture or a hierarchical management architecture.

The slicing of the radio access network can be considered as dividing the radio access network according to a predetermined vertical market or the horizontal network layer (or multiple/department levels) of the network. This can be thought of as a form of logical separation between the wireless resources provided by or used by the radio access network. The logical separation of wireless resources may allow them to be individually defined, managed, and/or (generally or specifically) resourced. This separation can provide the ability that different slices cannot or are allowed to influence each other. Likewise, in some embodiments, for operational reasons, one or more slices may be specifically provided with the ability to manage the other one or more slices.

In some embodiments, the network function can be completely offloaded to the network slice, and the slice can be operated in an independent mode, for example, an independent millimeter wave (mmWave) small cell network and a D2D network outside the coverage area. The mmWave small cell is a small cell that uses millimeter-sized radio waves (ie, high frequency-for example, 60 GHz).

In some embodiments, the network function can be partially offloaded to the slice, and the slice can be operated in a non-independent mode, for example, in an anchor-enhancer architecture, where the anchor-enhancer architecture may contain anchor cells, which provide control The plane and the mobility anchor point used to maintain the connection. In a real In an embodiment, the anchor cell may be a cell with a wide coverage area, for example, a macro cell. The anchor-enhancer architecture may further include enhancer cells that provide user-level data offloading. In one embodiment, the enhancer cells may be small cells and may be deployed under the coverage of anchor cells. From the device point of view, the control plane and the user plane can be decoupled, that is, the control plane can be kept in the anchor cell, and the data plane can be kept in the enhancer cell.

In some example embodiments, as shown in the chart 300 of FIG. 3, horizontal slices and vertical slices can be regarded as entangled (ie, where radio access network functions/resources are shared between some vertical and horizontal slices). ). Therefore, Figure 3 shows how a radio access network (RAN) according to the alternative (or additional) embodiment shown in Figure 1 can be sliced into horizontal and vertical slices, where slices are completely independent in terms of transport flow and operation. of. The graph 300 of FIG. 1 has a network hierarchy 302 along the y-axis (ie, about/in use of the network layer) and a radio resource 304 along the x-axis (ie, indicating the use of individual components such as frequency, time slot, etc.) Radio resources). In the example of FIG. 1, the vertical slice is shown as including four vertical slices 306. However, it can be about any number of different markets/use cases. The four vertical markets/use cases selected for the vertical slice are Mobile Broadband (MBB) 110, Vehicle Type Communication (V2X) 120, First Machine Type Communication (MTC-1) 130, Second Machine Type Communication (MTC-2) ) 140, which are Slice # 1~Slice # 4 respectively. These are just exemplary choices of use cases that can be served.

The horizontal slice is also shown in Figure 3. In this example, again Contains four horizontal slices 308. The four horizontal slices shown are the macro network layer 210, the micro network layer 220, the device-to-device network layer 230, and the personal area network (PAN) (for example, wearable) network layer 240. According to the example, each horizontal slice contains a part of multiple vertical slices. Likewise, each vertical slice contains a part of each horizontal slice. The separated part separated in the horizontal and vertical directions may be referred to as a slice part. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 1, the MBB vertical slice 110 includes four slice parts: a macro network layer part 112; a micro network layer part 114; a D2D network layer part 116; and a PAN network layer part 118. Similarly, the V2X vertical slice 120 includes four slice parts: a macro network layer part 122; a small network layer part 124; a D2D network layer part 126; and a PAN network layer part 128. At the same time, MTC-1 vertical slice 130 includes four slice parts: macro network layer part 132; micro network layer part 134; D2D network layer part 136; and PAN network layer part 138, and MTC-2 vertical slice 140 includes four slice parts: a macro network layer part 142; a micro network layer part 144; a D2D network layer part 146; and a PAN network layer part 148.

In a personal area network, an example of this architecture is that a wearable health sensor can belong to a dedicated health network. The personal area network layer can then represent horizontal network slices. A health sensor operating under the coverage of a personal area network can belong to a vertical network slice. Similarly, each horizontal network slice can contain multiple vertical network slices. Each vertical network slice can have multiple horizontal network slices. Another example is a macro cell (ie, a macro eNB) that serves communication for multiple different use cases. same In particular, each vertical slice may contain parts of multiple horizontal slices. For example, in a V2X network, there may be V2I and V2V layers. In another example, as shown in the figure, a mobile broadband (MBB) vertical slice includes portions in each of the macro, micro, and device-to-device layers. Therefore, the embodiment provides a method to logically divide the wireless resources provided and/or in use by the radio access network according to both the use case (vertically) and the network layer (horizontal direction).

Communication and computing are already pushing the boundaries of information and computing technology to help each other. On the network side, computing has been used to facilitate communication through mobile computing and storage to the edge. Using edge cloud and edge computing, the communication link between source and destination is gradually shortened, thereby improving communication efficiency and reducing the amount of information dissemination in the network. The optimal configuration of edge cloud and computing solutions is different. As a general rule, the less capable end devices are and/or the higher device density, and the cloud and computing are closer to the edge of the network.

On the side of the device, from portable devices to wearable devices, the device is further shrinking in size, and users expect computing to keep increasing. We expect future communications may help provide user experience, such as network nodes Cut out part of their computing resources to help calculations in portable devices, and portable devices cut out part of their computing resources to help calculations in wearable devices. In this way, the network is sliced horizontally. The cut out computing resources and the air interface connecting the two ends form an integrated part that provides the required services.

Fig. 4 shows a more detailed example of horizontal slicing in a sliceable wireless network architecture according to an embodiment. The left hand side shows the traditional 3G/4G architecture (but only from the RAN downward). This includes the base station part 410, which includes the upstream/core network side communication function 412, the base station calculation function 414 (ie, the available processing resources in the base station, or its closely coupled entity), and downstream/wireless/device side communication Function 416 (communicate with a device that is being served by the base station, or other peer base station, for example, in the case of a fronthaul, etc.). There is also a display portable part 420 (for example, a user equipment, or similar device), which includes a similar combination of upstream and downstream communication resources and regional processing resources. In this case, the upstream communication link is a typical cellular wireless communication link 422 (for example, an OFDM/CDMA/LTE type link) and a downstream communication link 426 such as 5G Radio Access Technology (RAT) ( For example, OFDM/CDMA/LTE type links), next-generation communication links such as 5G PAN RAT (not yet established), or other existing or next-generation PAN wireless communication technologies, such as Bluetooth, ZigBee, etc. Among them is the area calculation function 424, that is, the local processing resources of the portable device. Finally, in this example, there is a wearable part 430, which usually only has a single upstream communication link 432 and a limited area processing resource function 434.

The right-hand side of Figure 4 shows one of the newly proposed horizontal network slicing concepts, especially how the processing resources of higher and lower entities in the network can be "combined", that is, shared between them, Use the communication and processing resource capabilities of participating entities. The basic functions are similar, so they are respectively represented as items 410' to 434' and act in a similar manner. However, there is now the concept of horizontal slices. In this case, horizontal slices #1 190 and #2 195 of Figure 1 are shown in more detail. In this basic example, by Using the communication function to share processing data (for example, processing data and obtained processing data), the wearable device 430' can utilize the processing resource 424' of the portable device 420'. Similarly, the portable device 420' can use the processing resources 414' of the base station 410'.

According to the present invention, a more detailed description of a part of the network slicing concept will now be followed. In some examples, these functions can be provided as new network functions (NF), which may be virtualized in some cases, for example, by using network function virtualization (NFV). These NF and NFV may be specific slices, or operations on multiple/all slices. The proposed wireless networks are all as a whole (for example, included in the core network), but in particular, by using the newly implemented slice recognition, RAN will now be slice-aware.

FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram 500 of an example of the building blocks of a sliceable radio access network architecture according to an embodiment, and particularly shows how the RAN control entity according to the embodiment can control the horizontal and vertical slices in FIG. 3. In this figure, the function of the control plane (c-plane) is shown as the first filling type 502, the function of the management plane (m-plane) is shown as the second filling type 504, and the user plane (u-plane) The function is shown as the third fill type 506. It should be noted that the rest of the drawings use the same key for different plane parts, but the numbering of specific examples of plane types in the following figures will be numbered in order relative to the number of the figure under discussion, for example, For the 600 series in Figure 6 = items 602 to 606, for the 700 series in Figure 7, etc.).

In Figure 5, there are sliceable (and now sliced) The radio access network architecture includes a plurality of horizontal RAN slices 308 and a plurality of vertical RAN slices 306. As shown in the figure, the vertical/horizontal slice contains parts 112~148. Any given slice part in the matrix may include a control plane function part and/or a user plane function part. For example, the slice section A, which in this example is the top horizontal slice section 112 of the MBB vertical market 110, includes both the functions of the c-plane and the u-plane. At the same time, the slice part B is the second level horizontal slice part 134 of the MTC-1 vertical market 130 which only has the u-plane function.

The RAN slice in FIG. 5 is being managed by the RAN control entity 510, which may include either or both of the functions of the c-plane 502 and the m-plane 504. In the example shown, these two types of functions are included in the RAN control entity used to control and coordinate network slicing operations (m-plane). Therefore, the RAN control entity can run the control plane (c-plane) 502 and the management plane (m-plane) 504. The c-plane 502 may be responsible for establishing and maintaining connections of slices of the network. The m-plane 504 may be responsible for the configuration/reconfiguration of slices, for example, the setting and subsequent management of slices or slice parts, as described in more detail below. In some embodiments, the function of the c-plane 502 of the RAN control entity may be a c-plane anchor for slices that do not have a c-plane. In the m-plane 504, the RAN control entity 510 can operate at Layer 1 (L1, PHY layer) and Layer 2 (L2, MAC layer and above, up to and below the IP layer-in the context of LTE, layer 2). 2 The control function can be a radio resource control (RRC) function), where L1 controls the normal layer 1 (PHY) operation of the coordinated slice, and L2 control (which is a function introduced by the present invention) coordinates the L2 (RRC) operation of the slice, that is Each vertical of the slice Slice operation. In some examples, the RAN control entity 510 may be a virtual entity, and its functions may be physically distributed in different locations of the radio access network.

Figure 6 shows a first, distributed example of a RAN control entity according to an embodiment. In this embodiment, the RAN control entity 510 may be distributed among multiple (or all) macro BSs in the wireless communication network (however, for clarity, only one such macro BS 610 is shown in the figure). In this example, each macro BS can run on the portion of the network slice within the coverage of the macro BS that the RAN control entity function 604 manages. In the example of FIG. 6, there are three slice parts: slice part #1-1; slice part #2-1 and slice part #3-1. In one example, the slice part #1-1 may be a part of the (vertical) MBB slice 110 under the coverage of the macro BS #1610, that is, the slice part 112 in FIG. 5. In one example, the slice part #2-1 may be a part of the (vertical) MTC-1 slice 120 under the coverage of the macro BS #1610, that is, the slice part 122 in FIG. 5. In one example, the slice part #3-1 may be a part of the (vertical) MTC-2 slice 130 under the coverage of the macro BS #1610, that is, the slice part 132 in FIG. 5. As described above, referring to FIG. 5, each slice part may have a c-plane and/or u-plane functional part.

In FIG. 6, the macro BS #1610 has an m-plane functional portion 604, a c-plane functional portion 602, and a u-plane functional portion 606, and a plurality of macro BSs uniformly constitute the behavior of the RAN (ie, distributed system ) To manage the slices of the RAN as a whole. Implementation of the invention Examples are not limited to slices, slice parts, or any specific combination of their respective components in terms of c-plane, u-plane, or m-plane functions.

Figure 7 shows a second, centralized example of a RAN control entity according to an embodiment. In this embodiment, the RAN control entity 510 may be centrally configured, for example, in a centralized RAN controller 710 to manage all slices within its coverage area, and may, for example, span multiple macro BS areas. In this figure, the RAN controller 710 has the functional parts of the m-plane 704 and the c-plane 706 at the same time, which controls different slices as a whole, that is, slice #1, slice #2, and slice #3. In the example of FIG. 7, slice #1 is the MBB vertical slice 110, slice #2 is the V2X vertical slice 120, and slice #3 is the MTC-1 vertical slice 130, however, the specific slice used is not limiting. In addition, in this example, slice #1 and slice #2 are respectively shown as having both c-plane function part and u-plane function part 706, and slice #3 is shown as having only u-plane function part.

Therefore, according to the embodiment, the management plane control function for controlling and coordinating the slice/slice part (ie, the RAN control entity) can be distributed or centrally configured.

According to an embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 respectively, layer 1 (L1-such as PHY) and layer 2 (L2-such as MAC and the layer above, providing RRC function) control functions, which can operate together to To control the u-plane operation, you can follow a flat structure or a hierarchical control structure.

In the flat control architecture shown in FIG. 8, all vertical and horizontal slice u-plane control can be controlled by the RAN control entity 510 To manage. According to the example of FIG. 8, the RAN control entity 510 has both an L2 control function part 830 and an L1 control function part 835. The L2 control function part 830 may be an L2 function part 840, 850, 860 that is operable to control each of the slices #1 to slice #3, 110 to 130. In the same example, the L1 control function part 835 may be operable to control the L1 function parts 845, 855, 865 of each of the slices #1 to slice #3, 110 to 130.

In the hierarchical control architecture shown in FIG. 9, the RAN control entity 510 may only control one type of slice, for example, a vertical slice, which will further control other types of slices, for example, a horizontal slice. As a further example, in V2X, vertical slicing (V2X) is likely to control horizontal slicing (V2V), however, in personal area network (PAN), horizontal slicing (PAN) is likely to control vertical slicing (e.g., health Detector MTC).

According to the specific example of FIG. 9, the RAN control entity 510 has both an L2 control function part 830 and an L1 control function part 835. The L2 control function part 830 may be an (overall) L2 controller function part 930 operable to control slice #1 110, which then controls the L2 function part of each of the horizontal slice parts forming the vertical slice 110-that is, Horizontal slice part #1-1 112, horizontal slice part #1-2 114, etc. (For clarity, only two horizontal slice parts of slice #1 are shown). Different vertical slices can be controlled individually and in different ways-as shown in the figure, the vertical slice #2 120 has only a single L2 control function part 850 (ie, slice #2 is the same as discussed above in Figure 8 Is controlled in a similar manner as shown in).

Therefore, when it may be necessary in some implementations of the disclosed sliced RAN technology, the paradigm can provide heterogeneous control of different vertical slices. The L1 control function can be operated in the same or similar way. Figure 9 shows the exact same way of being applied. Therefore, in FIG. 9, the L1 control function part 835 may be an (overall) L2 controller function part 940 operable to control the slice #1 110, which then controls each of the horizontal slice parts forming the vertical slice 110 The L1 functional part of the-that is, the horizontal slice part # 1-1 112, the horizontal slice part # 1-2 114, etc. Different vertical slices can be controlled individually and in different ways-as shown in the figure, the vertical slice #2 120 has only a single control function part 855 (ie, slice #2 is described in Figure 8 as discussed above It can be controlled in a similar way as shown).

FIG. 10 shows a first exemplary method 1000 for managing a radio access network according to an embodiment. This example is shown at the highest level of detail and includes identifying a vertical slice (ie, the market to be served) 1010, then identifying the horizontal slice (ie, with respect to the network layer) 1020, and then slicing 1030 the RAN accordingly. It should be understood that the recognition of vertical and horizontal slices can be performed in reverse order or at the same time. Slice recognition can be performed separately and asynchronously (horizontal or vertical, or sub-type) for each type, and can be performed periodically. The RAN can be (re)sliced, and the operation of slicing can be changed according to any and each slice recognition procedure performed.

FIG. 11 shows a second exemplary method 1100 for managing a radio access network according to an embodiment. This example is shown in lower-level details compared to FIG. 10. The exemplary method starts and then proceeds to determine whether the slice will be controlled 1110 in a flat architecture or a hierarchical architecture. If it is a flat architecture, then Then it is 1115, and the method continues to control all slices 1120 (and related slice parts) by the RAN control entity 510 (as shown in FIG. 8). Depending on the implementation, the method can return at a later stage to retest the configuration. If it is a hierarchical structure, then 1117, the method continues to the first slice (and optionally its related slice part) 1130 controlled by the RAN control entity 510, and then by the control function of the first slice Control other slices (and their related slice parts) 1140 (see Figure 9). Depending on the implementation, the method can return at a later stage to retest the configuration.

As used herein, the term RAN control entity may be any circuit, logic, or circuit suitable and arranged to perform the disclosed methods and control functions. The terms "logic", "circuit" and "circuit" can refer to being part of or including application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), electronic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated or group), and/or execution Memory (shared, dedicated or group) of one or more software or firmware programs, combinational logic circuits, and/or other suitable hardware components that provide the described functions. In some embodiments, the circuit may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules, or the functions related to the circuit may be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules. In some embodiments, the circuit may contain logic and may be at least partially hardware-operable.

The embodiments described herein can be implemented as a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. For one embodiment, FIG. 12 shows exemplary components of the electronic device 1200, for example, a RAN control entity according to the embodiment. In an embodiment, the electronic device 1200 may be, implemented, incorporated, or otherwise be a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), such as a part of an evolved node B (eNB), a RAN controller, or some other electronic device or network entity, which can and is configured to perform the disclosed RAN slicing methods and functions. In some embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may include an application circuit 1210, a control circuit, such as a baseband circuit 1220, a radio frequency (RF) circuit 1230, a front-end module (FEM) circuit 1240, and one or more antennas 1250, at least as shown in the figure The ones shown are coupled together.

The application circuit 1210 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuit 1210 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor may include any combination of a general-purpose processor and a special-purpose processor (for example, a graphics processor, an application processor, etc.). The processor may be coupled and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

The baseband circuit 1220 may include circuits such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuit 1220 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process the baseband signal received from the receive signal path of the RF circuit 1230 and to generate the baseband signal for the transmit signal path of the RF circuit 1230. Frequency signal. The baseband processing circuit 1220 may be connected to an application circuit 1210 for generating and processing baseband signals and for controlling the operation of the RF circuit 1230. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 1220 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 1221, a third generation (3G) baseband processor 1222, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1223, And/or other baseband processors for other current generations, developing or future generations (for example, fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.) 1224. The baseband circuit 1220 (for example, one or more baseband processors 1221 to 1224) can handle various radio control functions, which communicate with one or more radio networks through the RF circuit 1230. The radio control function can include, but is not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, the modulation/demodulation circuit of the baseband circuit 1220 may include fast Fourier transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functions. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding circuit of the baseband circuit 1220 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or low-density parity check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functions . The embodiments of the functions of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder are not limited to these examples, and may include other suitable functions in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 1220 may include protocol stacking elements, such as, for example, elements of the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (EUTRAN) protocol, including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control ( MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), and/or Radio Resource Control (RRC) components. The central processing unit (CPU) 1226 of the baseband circuit 1220 may be configured to run protocol stacking elements for signaling at the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP, and/or RRC layers. In some embodiments, the baseband circuit may include one or more audio digital signal processors (DSP) 1227. The audio DSP 1227 may contain elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation, and in other embodiments may contain other suitable processing elements.

The baseband circuit 1220 may further include memory/storage 1225. The memory/storage 1225 can be used to load and store data and/or instructions for operation by the processor of the baseband circuit 1220. For an embodiment, the memory/storage may include any combination of suitable volatile memory and/or non-volatile memory. The memory/storage 1225 can include any combination of various levels of memory/storage, including, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) with embedded software commands (for example, firmware), random access memory ( For example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM)), cache memory, buffer, etc. The memory/storage 1225 can be shared among various processors or dedicated to a specific processor.

The components of the baseband circuit can be appropriately combined in a single chip, a single chip group, or in some embodiments are arranged on the same circuit board. In some embodiments, part or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuit 1220 and the application circuit 1210 may be implemented together, such as, for example, on a system-on-chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuit 1220 may provide communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuit 1220 can support and evolve the universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), wireless local area networks (WLAN), wireless personal area Network (WPAN) communication. The radio communication in which the baseband circuit 1220 in the embodiment is configured to support more than one wireless protocol can be referred to as a multi-mode baseband circuit.

The RF circuit 1230 can use a non-solid medium to use modulated electromagnetic radiation to cause communication with a wireless network. In various embodiments, the RF circuit 1230 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate Communication with wireless networks. The RF circuit 1230 may include a receiving signal path, which may include a circuit for down-converting the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1240 and providing a baseband signal to the baseband circuit 1220. The RF circuit 1230 may also include a transmission signal path, which may include a circuit for up-converting the baseband signal provided by the baseband circuit 1220 and providing an RF output signal to the FEM circuit 1240 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1230 may include a receiving signal path and a transmitting signal path. The receiving signal path of the RF circuit 1230 may include a mixer circuit 1231, a power amplifier circuit 1232, and a filter circuit 1233. The transmission signal path of the RF circuit 1230 may include a filter circuit 1233 and a mixer circuit 1231. The RF circuit 1230 may also include a synthesizer circuit 1234 for synthesizing frequencies used by the mixer circuit 1231 of the reception signal path and the transmission signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 of the receiving signal path may be configured to down-convert the RF signal received from the FEM circuit 1240 based on the synthesis frequency provided by the synthesis circuit 1234. The amplifier circuit 1232 may be configured to amplify the down-converted signal and the filter circuit 1233 may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signal to generate an output baseband signal. Filter (BPF). The output baseband signal can be provided to the baseband circuit 1220 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signal may be a zero-frequency baseband signal, although this is not required. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 of the receiving signal path may include an active mixer, although the scope of the embodiment is not limited to this aspect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 of the transmit signal path can be configured to up-convert the input baseband signal based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuit 1234 to generate the RF output signal for the FEM circuit 1240. The baseband signal can be provided by the baseband circuit 1220 and can be filtered by the filter circuit 1233. The filter circuit 1233 may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiment is not limited to this aspect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit 1231 of the transmitting signal path may include two or more mixers, and may be configured for quadrature down-conversion and/or respectively. Upconversion. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit 1231 of the transmitting signal path may include two or more mixers, and may be configured for image suppression (e.g., Hartley (Hartley) image suppression). In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 and the mixer circuit 1231 of the receiving signal path may be configured for direct down-conversion and/or direct up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuit 1231 of the receiving signal path and the mixer circuit 1231 of the transmitting signal path may be configured for superheterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited to this aspect. In some alternative embodiments, the output baseband signal and the input baseband signal may be digital baseband signals. In these alternative embodiments, the RF circuit 1230 may include an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuit, and the baseband circuit 1220 may include a digital baseband interface To communicate with the RF circuit 1230.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuit can provide processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited to this aspect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1234 may be a fractional N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiment is not limited to this aspect, and other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuit 1234 may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer including a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuit 1234 may be configured to synthesize the output frequency of the mixer circuit 1231 for the RF circuit 1230 based on the frequency input and the divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1234 may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer.

In some embodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although this is not necessary. The frequency divider control input can be provided by the base frequency circuit 1220 or the application processor 1210 according to the required output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input (eg, N) may be determined from a lookup table based on the channel indicated by the application processor 1210.

The synthesizer circuit 1234 of the RF circuit 1230 may include a frequency divider, a delay locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer, and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the frequency divider may be a dual-mode frequency divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD can be configured to divide the input signal into N or N+1 (for example, based on Realize) to provide a division ratio of the number of parts. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, phase detectors, charge pumps, and D-type flip-flops. In these embodiments, the delay element can be configured to break the Nd equal packet of the VCO period up to the phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuit 1234 may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (for example, twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) ) And used with a quadrature generator and frequency divider circuit to generate multiple signals at multiple carrier frequencies with different phases relative to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be the LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuit 1230 may include an IQ/polarity converter.

The FEM circuit 1240 may include a receive signal path, which may include a path configured to manipulate the RF signal received from one or more antennas 1250, amplify the received signal, and provide an amplified version of the received signal to the RF circuit 1230 for further processing The circuit. The FEM circuit 1240 may include a transmission signal path, which may include a circuit configured to amplify the transmitted signal provided by the RF circuit 1230 by one or more of the one or more antennas 1250.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuit 1240 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuit can include a receiving signal path and a transmitting signal path. FEM circuit The received signal path may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signal and provide the amplified received RF signal as an output (for example, to the RF circuit 1230). The transmission signal path of the FEM circuit 1240 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify the input RF signal (for example, provided by the RF circuit 1230), and one or more filters to generate the RF signal for subsequent transmission (for example, by a Or one or more of the multiple antennas 1250).

In some embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may include other components, such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface, although the scope of the embodiment is not It is not limited to this aspect.

In some embodiments, the electronic device 1200 may be implemented, incorporated, or part of a RAN entity. In an embodiment, the baseband circuit 1220 may be used to: identify one or more vertical slices of the RAN, the vertical slices are related to the vertical market segment of the RAN; identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, the horizontal slices Segmentation of the network hierarchy of the RAN; and cutting the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices. The RF circuit can be used to send and/or receive one or more signals according to the vertical and/or horizontal slices.

In some embodiments, the electronic device of FIG. 12 may be configured to perform one or more procedures, techniques, and/or methods or portions thereof as described herein. One such procedure is depicted in Figure 10. For example, in an embodiment, the electronic device is a part of, or part of, the realization, incorporation, or RAN control entity. The program may include identifying one or more verticals of the RAN by the radio access network (RAN) control entity. Slice Straight slices are related to the vertical market segment of the RAN; one or more horizontal slices of the RAN are identified by the RAN controlling entity, and the horizontal slices are related to the network layer segmentation of the RAN; and by the RAN controlling entity To cut the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices.

FIG. 13 shows components that can read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (for example, a machine-readable storage medium) and execute any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments Block diagram. Specifically, FIG. 13 shows one or more processors (or processor cores) 1310, one or more memory/storage devices 1320, and one or more communication resources 1330, each of which is provided by a bus 1340 is a schematic diagram of a hardware resource 1300 communicatively coupled.

Processor 1310 (for example, central processing unit (CPU), reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, graphics processing unit (GPU), digital signal processor (DSP), such as a base A frequency processor, a special application integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), other processors, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 1312 and a processor 1314. The memory/storage device 1320 may include main memory, magnetic disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof.

The communication resource 1330 may include interconnection and/or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1304 and/or one or more database 1306 via the network 1308. For example, the communication resource 1330 may include wired communication components (for example, coupled via a universal serial bus (USB)), cellular communication components, and near field communication. (NFC) components, Bluetooth components (for example, Bluetooth low energy), Wi-Fi components, and other communication components.

The instructions 1350 may include software, programs, applications, applets, APPs, or other executable codes to cause at least any one of the processors 1310 to execute any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instruction 1350 may reside completely or partially in at least one of the processors 1310 (for example, in the cache memory of the processor), the memory/storage device 1320, or any suitable combination thereof. In addition, any part of the instruction 1350 can be transferred to the hardware resource 1300 from any combination of the peripheral device 1304 and/or the database 1306. Therefore, the memory of the processor 1310, the memory/storage device 1320, the peripheral device 1304, and the database 1306 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Embodiments can be implemented in any and all arrangements according to any of the following examples collectively and individually:

Example 1 may be about the method of slicing the radio access network into vertical and horizontal network slices. Example 1 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 2 may be related to a sliceable RAN architecture that manages the c-plane and u-plane RAN control entities of the underlying radio access network (RAN) slice. Example 2 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 3 may include the sliceable radio access network architecture of Example 2 or some other examples in this document, where the RAN control system is physically distributed or centrally located. Example 3 can be further included in this Any other examples in the text.

Example 4 may include the sliceable radio access network architecture of Example 3 or some other examples in this article, where, in the case of distribution, the RAN control system is co-located with the giant BS and is used to uniquely manage the vertical And/or the horizontal slice, or part of it, is under the coverage of the giant BS. Example 4 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 5 may include the slicable radio access network architecture of Example 3 or some other examples in this document, where, in a centralized case, the RAN control system is used to manage multiple control entities in the RAN The slice part of the BS under the coverage. Example 5 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 6 may include the slicable radio access network architecture of Examples 2-5 or some other examples in this article, and further include the first layer (L1) control function and the second layer (L2) control function, wherein the L1 control Functions and L2 control functions are used to apply plane control architecture or hierarchical control architecture. Example 6 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 7 may include the sliceable radio access network architecture of Example 6 or some other examples in this document, where, in the case of a flat control architecture, all horizontal and vertical slices are controlled by the RAN control entity. L1 and L2 control function management, or, in the case of the hierarchical control architecture, the RAN control system is used to control only one of the vertical or horizontal slices, and the one slice is used to control the horizontal or vertical slices. Another slice. Example 7 can be further included in this article Any other examples.

Example 8 may include a method including: identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN by a radio access network (RAN) control entity, the vertical slices being related to the vertical market segment of the RAN; and controlling by the RAN Entity to identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, the horizontal slices are related to the network layer segmentation of the RAN; and the RAN control entity is used to cut the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slice. Example 8 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 9 may include the method of Example 8 or some other examples herein, and further include managing one or more vertical and/or horizontal sliced c-plane and u-plane elements by the RAN control entity. Example 9 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 10 may include the methods of Example 8 or 9 or some other examples in this article, and further include: when the RAN control entity is co-located with a giant base station (BS), only the RAN control entity is used to manage the vertical and / Or horizontal slice, or its part within the coverage of the giant BS. Example 10 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 11 may include the methods of Example 8 or 9 or some other examples in this document, and further include: using the RAN control entity to manage vertical and/or horizontal slices within the coverage of a plurality of base stations (BS). Example 11 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 12 may include any one of Examples 8-11 or some other example methods in this document, and further include providing layer 1 (L1) and/or layer 2 (L2) control functions in the RAN control entity. Example 12 Any other examples that can be further included in this article.

Example 13 may include the method of Example 12 or some other examples in this document, and further include managing vertical and/or horizontal slices, or a part having the L1 and L2 control functions. Example 13 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 14 may include the methods of Examples 8-13 or some other examples herein, and further include physically distributing the RAN control entity across the RAN or part of it, or centralizing the RAN control entity. Example 14 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 15 may include the methods of Examples 12 to 14 or some other examples in this article, in which the L1 and/or L2 control function is used to manage one type of the vertical or horizontal slice, and then other slices are used to manage other types of slices. Slice vertically or horizontally. Example 15 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 16 may include the methods of Examples 8-15 or some other examples in this article, wherein the one or more horizontal slices are related to giant network slices, micro network slices, device-to-device (D2D) slices, and personal area networks. Road, non-independent mode, anchored booster architecture. Example 16 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 17 may include an electronic device for realizing a radio access network (RAN) control entity. The electronic device includes: a baseband circuit for identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN, and the vertical slices are related to the The vertical market segment of the RAN; identify one or more of the RAN Horizontal slices, the horizontal slices are segmented with respect to the network hierarchy of the RAN; and the RAN is sliced into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices; and a radio frequency (RF) circuit, which is coupled to the baseband circuit The RF circuit is used to transmit and/or receive one or more signals according to the vertical and/or horizontal slices or parts thereof. Example 17 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 18 may include the electronic device of example 17 or some other examples in this document, wherein the RAN control system is used to provide an m-plane control function for controlling the network slice of the slice RAN. Example 18 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 19 may include the electronic devices of Examples 17-18 or some other examples herein, wherein the baseband circuit is further used to manage c-plane and u-plane components in one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices. Example 19 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 20 may include the electronic devices of Examples 17-19 or some other examples in this article, where the RAN control system is co-located with a giant base station (BS), and the RAN control system only manages vertical and/or horizontal slices , Or its part within the coverage of the giant BS. Example 20 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 21 may include the electronic devices of Examples 17-20 or some other examples in this document, wherein the RAN control system is used to manage vertical and/or horizontal slices within the coverage of a plurality of base stations (BS). Example 21 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 22 can include examples 17~21 or some in this article Other exemplary electronic devices, wherein the RAN control entity further includes a layer 1 (L1) and/or a layer 2 (L2) control function, and wherein the L1 control function is the physical (PHY) layer, and wherein the L2 control The function is the media access control (MAC) layer and/or the layers above it. These L2 layers may contain RRC functions. Example 22 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 23 may include the electronic device of Example 22 or some other examples in this article, where L1 and L2 control functions are hierarchical, so that the lower-level part (or parts) control the operation of each slice, and the higher-level part (Or parts) coordinate the MAC operations across the slices. Example 23 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 24 may include the electronic devices of Examples 17-23 or some other examples in this document, wherein the L1 and L2 control functions are used to manage vertical and/or horizontal slices. Example 24 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 25 may include the electronic devices of Examples 17-24 or some other examples in this article, wherein the L1 and/or L2 control function is used to manage one type of the vertical or horizontal slice, which then manages other types of vertical Or horizontal slice.

Example 26 may include the electronic devices in Examples 17-25 or some other examples in this article, wherein the one or more vertical slices are related to mobile broadband (MBB) slices, machine type communication (MTC) slices, and vehicles at any position. (V2X) Communication slice. Example 26 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 27 may include the electronic devices of Examples 17 to 26 or some other examples in this article, where the one or more horizontal slices are related to giant network slices, micro network slices, device-to-device (D2D) slices, and personal areas. Network, dependent mode, anchored booster architecture. Example 27 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 28 may include an electronic device for realizing a radio access network (RAN) control entity. The electronic device includes: a baseband circuit for identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN, and the vertical slices are related to the Use cases of RAN communication; identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, where the horizontal slice includes a network layer part that can define the function of offloading the entities that form the horizontal slices; and cut the RAN Into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices; and a radio frequency (RF) circuit, which is coupled to the baseband circuit, and the RF circuit is used to transmit and/or receive one or more according to the vertical and/or horizontal slice Multiple signals. Example 28 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 29 may include the electronic device of Example 28 or some other examples herein, wherein the baseband circuit is further used to manage c-plane and u-plane components in one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices, or parts thereof . Example 29 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 30 may include the electronic devices of Examples 28-29 or some other examples in this document, where the one or more vertical slices are related to separable communication use cases to be transmitted or received through the RAN, including the following One or more: mobile broadband (MBB) use cases, machines Type communication (MTC) use cases, any location vehicle (V2X) communication use cases, health network use cases, industrial control use cases. Example 30 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 31 may include a radio access network (RAN) control entity for logically slicing the RAN into one or more horizontal or vertical slices; where the vertical slices include predetermined types of communication; and where the horizontal slices include definable and capable A predetermined layer of the RAN or system that will form part of the network hierarchy of offloading functions between entities of the horizontal slice; wherein the RAN control entity includes at least a part of RAN resources according to the requirements of the one or more horizontal or vertical slices Control distribution. Example 31 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 32 may include the radio access network (RAN) control entity of example 31 or some other examples herein, wherein the RAN includes at least two vertical slices and at least two horizontal slices. Example 32 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 33 may include the radio access network (RAN) control entities of Examples 31 to 32 or some other examples in this document, where the predetermined type of communication is related to the use of the RAN for communication or a specific type of communication in the market area part. Example 33 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 34 may include the radio access network (RAN) control entities of examples 31 to 33 or some other examples in this document, where the radio access network (RAN) control system is controlled across multiple parts of the RAN. distributed. Example 34 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 35 may include the radio access network (RAN) control entities of Examples 31 to 34 or some other examples in this document, where parts of the RANs are evolved Node Bs (eNBs) of the RAN. Example 35 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 36 may include the radio access network (RAN) control entities of Examples 31 to 35 or some other examples in this document, where the predetermined layers of the RAN include a giant base station (BS) layer, a small BS layer, and a device pair Device layer, wearable layer or personal area network (PAN) layer. Example 36 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 37 may include the Radio Access Network (RAN) control entity of Example 36 or some other examples in this document, where the smaller base station includes any of a micro BS, a pico BS, a femto BS, or a smaller BS . Example 37 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 38 may include a device including: a mechanism for identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN by a radio access network (RAN) control entity, the vertical slices relating to the vertical market segment of the RAN; A mechanism for identifying one or more horizontal slices of the RAN by the RAN control entity, and the horizontal slices are segmented with respect to the network hierarchy of the RAN; and for cutting the RAN by the RAN control entity A mechanism to form the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices. Example 38 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 39 may include the device of Example 38 or some other examples in this document, and further include c-plane and u-plane elements for managing one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices by the RAN control entity 的机构。 Institutions. Example 39 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 40 may include the devices of Example 38 or 39 or some other examples in this document, and further include devices used to manage the vertical by only the RAN control entity when the RAN control entity is co-located with a giant base station (BS). And/or horizontal slice, or its part of the mechanism within the coverage of the giant BS. Example 40 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 41 may include any one of Examples 38 to 39 or some other example devices in this document, and further include a device for managing vertical and/ Or a horizontally sliced organization. Example 41 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 42 may include any one of Examples 38 to 41 or some other example devices in this document, and further include devices for providing layer 1 (L1) and/or layer 2 (L2) control functions in the RAN control entity的机构。 Institutions. The L1 control function may be a physical (PHY) layer and the L2 control function may be a medium access control (MAC) layer and/or a layer above. These L2 layers can contain RCC functions. Example 42 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 43 may include the device of Example 42 or some other examples in this document, and further include a mechanism for managing vertical and/or horizontal slices, or a part having the L1 and L2 control functions. Example 43 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 44 may include the devices of Examples 38 to 43 or some other examples herein, and further include a mechanism for physically distributing the RAN control entity across the RAN or part of it, or centralizing the RAN control entity . Example 44 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 45 may include the devices of Examples 42 to 44 or some other examples in this article, where the L1 and/or L2 control function is used to manage one type of mechanism in the vertical or horizontal slice, which is followed by other slices. To manage other types of vertical or horizontal slices. Example 45 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 46 may include the devices of Examples 38 to 45 or some other examples in this article, where the one or more horizontal slices are related to giant network slices, micro network slices, device-to-device (D2D) slices, and personal area networks. Road, non-independent mode, anchored booster architecture. Example 46 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 47 may include a computer-readable medium containing executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: via radio access network (RAN) The control entity is used to identify one or more vertical slices of the RAN, and the vertical slices are related to the vertical market segment of the RAN; the RAN control entity is used to identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, and the horizontal slices are related to the RAN. The network layer of the RAN, or a system capable of offloading functions between entities that form horizontal slices, which can define the network layer part; and the RAN control entity is used to cut the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or vertical slices Horizontal slice. Example 47 Any other examples that can be further included in this article.

Example 48 may include the computer readable media of Example 47 or some other examples in this document, and further include managing the m-plane function of the RAN by the RAN control entity. Example 48 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 49 may include the computer readable media of Examples 47 to 48 or some other examples in this document, and further include managing the c-plane and u-plane in one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices by the RAN control entity Component, or part of it. Example 49 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 50 may include any one of Examples 47 to 49 or some other examples of the computer readable media in this article, where the RAN control system is co-located with a giant base station (BS), and the RAN control system is only Manage vertical and/or horizontal slices, or their parts within the coverage of the giant BS. Example 50 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 51 may include any one of Examples 47 to 50 or some other examples of computer-readable media in this document, wherein the RAN control entity manages vertical and/or vertical and/or within the coverage of a plurality of base stations (BS) Horizontal slice. Example 51 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 52 may include any one of Examples 47 to 51 or some other examples of the computer readable medium herein, wherein the RAN control entity includes L1 and/or L2 control functions. Example 52 can further include Any other examples in this article.

Example 53 may include any one of Examples 47 to 52 or some other examples of computer readable media in this document, wherein the L1 and L2 control functions are used to manage vertical and/or horizontal slices. Example 53 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 54 may include any one of Examples 47 to 52 or some other examples of computer readable media in this document, wherein the L1 and/or L2 control function is used to manage one type of the vertical or horizontal slice, It then manages other types of vertical or horizontal slices. Example 54 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 55 may include any one of Examples 47 to 52 or some other examples of the computer readable media in this article, where the one or more vertical slices are related to mobile broadband (MBB) slices, machine type communication (MTC) Slicing, vehicle (V2X) communication slicing at any position, industrial control slicing. Example 55 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 56 may include any one of Examples 47 to 52 or some other examples of the computer readable media in this article, where the one or more horizontal slices are related to giant network slices, micro network slices, device-to-device (D2D) slicing, personal area network, dependent mode, anchored booster architecture. Example 56 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 57 may include a method including: identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN, the vertical slices are related to the use cases of communication of the RAN; identifying one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, where the horizontal slices include definable Able to divide the entities that form these horizontal slices And cutting the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices; and the method further includes: using a radio frequency (RF) circuit coupled with the baseband circuit, according to The vertical and/or horizontal slices are used to send and/or receive one or more signals. Example 57 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 58 may include the method of Example 57 or some other examples herein, further including managing c-plane and u-plane components in one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices, or parts thereof. Example 58 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 59 may include the methods of Examples 57 to 58 or some other examples in this document, where the one or more vertical slices are related to separable communication use cases to be transmitted or received through the RAN, and include one of the following Or more: mobile broadband (MBB) use cases, machine type communication (MTC) use cases, vehicles anywhere (V2X) communication use cases, health network use cases, industrial control use cases. Example 59 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 60 may include a method of logically slicing the RAN into one or more horizontal or vertical slices, including providing vertical slices containing predetermined types of communication; A horizontal slice of the RAN or a predetermined layer of the system in the functional network layer part; and the RAN control entity is used to control the allocation of at least a part of the RAN resources according to the requirements of the one or more horizontal or vertical slices. Example 60 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 61 may include the method of Example 60 or some other examples herein, wherein the RAN includes at least two vertical slices and at least two horizontal slices. Example 61 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 62 may include the methods of Examples 60 to 61 or some other examples in this document, where the predetermined type of communication relates to the use of the market segment of the RAN for communication or a specific type of communication. Example 62 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 63 may include the methods of Examples 60-62 or some other examples in this document, and further include distributing the radio access network (RAN) control entity across multiple parts of the RAN. Example 63 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 64 may include the methods of Examples 60 to 63 or some other examples in this document, where parts of the RANs are base stations of the RAN. Example 64 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 65 may include the methods of Examples 60 to 64 or some other examples in this document, wherein the predetermined layer of the RAN includes a giant base station (BS) layer, a small BS layer, a device-to-device layer, a wearable layer, or a personal area Network (PAN) layer. Example 65 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 66 may include the method of Example 65 or some other examples herein, wherein the smaller base station includes any of a micro BS, a pico BS, a femto BS, or a smaller BS. Example 66 can further include Any other examples in this article.

Example 67 may include a base station (BS) device operable in a wireless communication network, and the device includes: a radio frequency (RF) circuit for receiving at least one communication initiated from a wireless network device or sending at least one communication to the wireless network And a radio access network control entity according to any one of Examples 31 to 37 or some other examples herein; or includes or is used to implement any of Examples 1, 8 to 16 or 57 to 66 or Some other example devices or modules in this article; or any one of Examples 2-7, 17~30, or 38~56 or some other example devices in this article. Example 67 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 68 may include a user equipment (UE) device operable in a wireless communication network, the device including: a radio frequency (RF) circuit for receiving or sending at least one communication to another device in the wireless communication network; and A radio access network control entity according to any one of examples 31 to 37 or some other examples in this document; or includes any one of or used to implement method examples 1, 8 to 16 or 57 to 66 or some other examples in this document Examples of devices or modules; or any of Examples 2-7, 17-30, or 38-56 or some other example devices in this article. Example 68 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 69 may include a device including a device for executing one or more elements of a method in or in relation to any of Examples 1, 8-16, or 57-66 or any other methods or procedures described herein. Example 69 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 70 may include one or more computer-readable media, which Contains instructions to cause the electronic device to execute the method in or in relation to any of Examples 1, 8-16, or 57-66 or some other examples herein when the instructions are executed by one or more processors of the electronic device One or more of the elements, or according to any one of Examples 2-7, 17-30, or 38-56 or some other examples herein, provide the function of the device or device. Example 70 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 71 may include a device that includes logic, modules, and/or circuits to perform one or more elements of the methods in or in relation to any of Examples 1, 8-16, or 57-66 or some other examples herein. Example 71 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 72 may include a device that includes: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to execute the example 1. Any one of 8-16 or 57-66 or some other example methods in this article. Example 72 may further include any other examples herein.

Example 73 may include the method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein. Example 73 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 74 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Example 74 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 75 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. Example 75 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 76 may include a device for causing network slicing in a radio access network, which includes any combination of the devices, entities, or methods described herein, or parts of the devices, entities, or methods described herein. Example 76 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 77 may include a radio access network, which includes any combination of the devices, entities, or methods described herein, or parts of the devices, entities, or methods described herein. Example 77 can further include any other examples in this document.

Example 78 may include a device for use in a radio access network, which includes any combination of the device, entity, or method described herein, or a part of the device, entity, or method described herein. Example 78 may further include any other examples in this document.

Example 79 may include methods, techniques, or procedures as described in or in relation to any one or part of Examples 2-7, 17-27, 28-30, 31-37, 38-46. Example 79 can further include any other examples.

In some examples, if the RAN control entity is physically distributed, the RAN control entity can be collocated with the macro BS and only manage the slice part under the coverage of the macro BS. In some examples, if the RAN control entity is in a central location, the RAN control entity can manage the slices that span multiple BSs under the coverage of the RAN control entity.

In some examples, the L1 and L2 control functions can apply a flat control architecture or a hierarchical control architecture, where in the case of a flat control architecture, all horizontal and vertical slices in the RAN control entity are composed of L1 and L2 control function management. Alternatively, in the case of a hierarchical control architecture, the RAN control entity can only control one type of horizontal or vertical slice, and the controlled slice further controls the other horizontal or vertical slice.

In some examples, the RAN includes at least two vertical slices and at least two horizontal slices.

In some examples, the predetermined type of communication relates to the market segment that uses the RAN for communication.

In some examples, radio access network (RAN) control entities are distributed across portions of the RAN. In some examples, part of the RAN is a base station (e.g., eNB) of the RAN.

In some examples, the RAN control entity provides an m-plane control function that can control the network slice of the sliced RAN. The m-plane control function can control any one or more of the following: the identification of vertical markets (or at least one vertical market) suitable for or expected to be served by the RAN, where each identified vertical market has a logically allocated vertical slice ; Applicable or expected to be served by the RAN for the identification of the horizontal slice of the vertical slice for service identification (for example, the network layer or its applicable part); slice the RAN into the identified one or more slices (horizontal And/or vertical); the coordination of the slice operation includes the setting and disassembly of the slice. The function of the m-plane can control the corresponding one or the entire c-plane and/or u-plane in the network slice identified by the RAN.

In the foregoing, reference to "layer" can be a reference to a predefined (or defined) part of the infrastructure, and reference to "layer" can be So it is a reference to the network protocol layer in operations on/in the network infrastructure or part of it.

Example use cases/types of communication may include: wireless/mobile broadband (MBB) communication; extreme mobile broadband (E-MBB) communication; real-time use cases, such as industrial control communication, machine-to-machine communication (MTC/MTC1); non-real-time Use cases such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensor communication, or large-scale machine-to-machine communication (M-MTC/MTC2); ultra-reliable machine-to-machine communication (U-MTC); mobile edge cloud, such as cache, Communication; vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication; vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication; vehicle-to-vehicle communication (V2X). That is to say, the present invention is about providing network slicing based on any easily definable/distinguishable communication type that can be implemented through a wireless network.

In some examples, radio access network (RAN) control entities are distributed across portions of the RAN. In some examples, a part of the RAN is a base station (e.g., eNB) of the RAN. In other cases, a part of the RAN may be a UE, or any other device that is or will be served by a wireless network/RAN, or it forms Part (or service), for example, Mobility Management Engine (MME), Baseband Unit (BBU), Remote Radio Head (RRH) or others. In some embodiments, if the RAN control entity is physically distributed, the RAN control entity may be collocated with the macro BS and only manage the slice part under the coverage of the macro BS. In some examples, if the RAN control entity is in a central location, the RAN control entity may span multiple BS management slices under the coverage of the RAN control entity. The RAN control entity can be based on one or more horizontal or vertical slices Needs include controlling at least a part of the allocation of RAN or devices and resources, such as computing resources in/in or available for devices in a wireless network.

As described in this article, in the RF circuit stated in the example or the scope of the patent application, for example, it is used to form a larger entity in the wireless network, such as a base station, which is also intended to cover or not include alternative embodiments of the RF circuit For example, according to the present invention, it is used (or provided) to use the distribution form of the entity. For example, this can be applied when the entity forms part of a cloud RAN, where the radio parts (e.g. RRH) are not co-located/in the same entity, such as at least one significant part of the control function (entity, module, etc.), e.g., BBU . Therefore, no embodiment is intended to be limited to only those that have sent or received messages to or form the RF portion of the wireless network. For example, some implementations may be part of the front-haul capability, which may be a connection from the radio front end (e.g., RRH) of a centralized or more centralized baseband function (e.g., BBU).

As used herein, any reference to a computer program product or computer-readable medium can include references to both transient (for example, physical media) and non-transitory forms (for example, a signal or its data structure).

The various embodiments disclosed herein can provide many advantages, such as, but not limited to: providing (compared) to the device being served, to any given number of core network and/or RAN resources (eg, computing, radio, etc.) Complete coverage; less control signaling delay and signaling exchange overhead between transmission points; provide improved coverage, and at the same time reduce control signaling exchanges between network nodes (incremental transmission points); more An effective (whole or substantial part) wireless network, for example, because it allows a given number (e.g. For example, a single physical radio access network infrastructure is used by multiple use cases, resulting in more hardware than other use cases (e.g., dual or more hardware, for example, separate physical radios are provided for each use case). Access network infrastructure) Less hardware/infrastructure; for all devices operating across the RAN and within each slice of the RAN, the performance, efficiency, and reliability of the radio access network are generally improved , Maintenance/repair services and service quality.

As described herein, the conduction, activation, or logical separation of network slices can be equivalent to each other, and the terms used are interchangeable. Similarly, the shutdown, deactivation, or logical despair of network slicing can be equated with each other, and the terms used are interchangeable. Network slicing can also be used as a logically independent (separated, sliced, etc.) radio network access, or as a reference to a logically independent (separated, sliced, etc.) radio network access part. The devices served by the physical radio access network infrastructure, or network slices, may include UEs, however, any and all other forms of devices may be considered as also interchangeable with the UE referenced herein. The device can be cited as a wireless network device. However, the wireless network device as used herein can also be cited as a service entity, such as base station, MME, BBU, RRH, etc., depending on the context of use. In operation, for the disclosed network slice, the access point and base station can be considered similar to being in use or deployment.

As described herein, specific examples have been used to explain the disclosed methods and functions (and functional units that perform these functions), however, the present invention is not so limited. For example, the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to any specific examples, such as: where a specific vertical market is revealed relative to the illustration. This is just an example, any vertical market can be used instead; where a specific part of the slice is exposed relative to the illustration, and any part of the slice can be used instead; where the RAN has been exposed relative to the illustration as having relative For slices of a certain size, type or number (horizontal or vertical), slices of any size, type or number can be used instead; among them, the slices or slice parts have been disclosed as having relative to a certain size, type or Number (horizontal or vertical), any size, type or number of slices of any size, type or number can be used alternatively. In addition, in the above content, although the numbering scheme for slices has been applied starting from 1, other numbering schemes can also be implemented, for example, the numbers may alternatively start from 0, so that slice #1 can be slice #0 and so on. Therefore, the specific numbers are not restrictive, and are not represented by the exemplary differences between slices (by being numbered differently) or the exemplary relationship between the numbered slice parts (by the number of consecutive slices of the same number). Subsection).

As used herein, the term "circuit" can refer to or include application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), electronic circuits, processors (shared, dedicated, or grouped), and/or memory (shared, dedicated Or part of a group) that executes one or more software or firmware programs, combinational logic circuits, and/or other suitable hardware or software components that include one or more virtual machines that can provide the described functions. In some embodiments, the circuit can be implemented in one or more software or firmware modules, or can be implemented by one or more software or firmware modules to implement the circuit-related functions. In some embodiments, the circuit may include logic that is at least partially operable in hardware. In some embodiments, processing/execution can be distributed instead of centralized Processing/execution.

As used herein, any reference to the (RAN) architecture can include any specific procedures, techniques, techniques, implementation details, improvements, or wireless network types (or similar network system entities) that can be defined or considered in any form , Especially in RAN. In various wireless network technologies in use, for example, standard documents of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards, etc., the architecture can usually be introduced, maintained, and updated.

It should be understood that any disclosed method (or corresponding device, program, data carrier, etc.) can be performed by the host or client, depending on the specific implementation (that is, the disclosed method/device is a form of communication, And in the same way, it can be done from any "point of view", that is, in a manner corresponding to each other. In addition, it should be understood that the terms “receive” and “send” include “input” and “output” and are not limited to the RF context of sending and receiving radio waves. Thus, for example, a wafer or other device or component used to implement an embodiment can generate data for output to another chip, device, or component, or have input data such as from another chip, device, or component, and such Output or input can be referred to as "send" and "receive", which encompasses the gerund form, namely "send" and "receive", and "send" and "receive" such as in the context of RF.

As used in this specification, any concise statement used in the style "at least one of A, B, or C", and the concise statement "at least one of A, B, and C" uses the alternative "or" and alternative Say "and" so that those succinct statements include any and all combinations of A, B, and C and several permutations, that is, only A, only B, only C, A and in any order B. A and C in any order, B and C in any order, and A, B, C in any order. It is possible to use more or less than three characteristics in such a concise statement.

In the scope of the patent application, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the patent application. The word "comprising" does not exclude the existence of other elements or steps that are subsequently listed in the scope of the patent application. In addition, as used herein, the terms "a" or "an" are defined as one or more than one. In addition, the use of introductory phrases such as "at least one" and "one or more" in the scope of a patent application should not be interpreted as implying that an indefinite article introduces an element within the scope of another patent application, and "a" or "an" restricts Any particular patent application that includes such an introduced element of the patent application scope to an invention that includes only one such element, even when the same patent application includes the introductory phrase "one or more" or "at least one" and such as "one "" or "a" indefinite article. The same applies to the use of definite articles. Unless otherwise indicated, terms such as "first" and "second" are used to arbitrarily distinguish between elements described by such terms. Therefore, these terms are not necessarily intended to indicate the timing or other order of priority of such elements. The fact that certain measures are recorded in mutually different patent applications does not mean that the combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

Unless expressly stated otherwise as incompatible, or the embodiment, example, or entity of the scope of the patent application or other prevent such a combination, the features of the foregoing embodiments and examples, and the scope of the following patent application can be integrated in any suitable arrangement Together, especially those who do so are good. This is not limited to any specific benefits, but can be raised from "after the fact" benefits out. That is to say, the combination of features is not limited by the form of description, especially the form of examples, embodiments (for example, numbering), or the dependency relationship of the scope of the patent application. In addition, this also applies to the terms "in one embodiment", "according to an embodiment", etc., which are merely a stylistic form of wording, and should not be construed as limiting the features of the following independent embodiments to all other identical or Examples of similar wording. That is to say, the reference to'a','one' or'some' embodiments may be a reference to any one or more, and/or all embodiments, or combinations thereof disclosed. In addition, similarly, references to "this" embodiment may not be limited to the immediately preceding embodiment.

In the foregoing, the reference to the "layer" can be a reference to the predefined (or defined) part of the infrastructure, and the reference to the "layer" can be to the network infrastructure, or Part of the reference to the network protocol layer in operation. As used herein, vertical slices can be referred to or related to vertical market segments. As used herein, any machine-executable instructions can implement the disclosed methods, and therefore can be used synonymously with the term method.

The one or more implementations described above provide explanations and descriptions, but are not intended to exhaustively or limit the scope of the patent application to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and changes based on the above teachings are possible or can be obtained from the practice of various implementations of the present invention.

200‧‧‧Second view

210‧‧‧Macro Network Layer

220‧‧‧Mini network layer part

Claims (29)

A wireless communication device, comprising: a mechanism for identifying one or more vertical slices of a RAN by a radio access network (RAN) control entity, the vertical slices being related to the vertical market segment of the RAN; In the mechanism for identifying one or more horizontal slices of the RAN by the RAN control entity, the horizontal slices are segmented with respect to the network hierarchy of the RAN; used to cut the RAN into the RAN by the RAN control entity One or more vertical and/or horizontal slice mechanisms; and mechanisms for providing layer 1 (L1) and/or layer 2 (L2) control functions in the RAN control entity. For example, the device of the first item in the scope of the patent application further includes a mechanism for managing one or more vertical and/or horizontal sliced c-plane and u-plane elements by the RAN control entity. For example, the device of item 1 of the scope of the patent application further includes a device for managing vertical and/or horizontal slices only by the RAN control entity when the RAN control entity is co-located with a giant base station (BS), or in Part of the organization within the coverage of the giant BS. For example, the device of the first item in the scope of the patent application further includes a mechanism for managing the vertical and/or horizontal slices within the coverage of a plurality of base stations (BS) by the RAN control entity. For example, the device of the first item of the scope of the patent application further includes a device for managing vertical and/or horizontal slices, or having the L1 and L2 control functions Part of the organization. For example, the device of the first item in the scope of the patent application further includes a mechanism for physically distributing the RAN control entity across the RAN or part of it, or centralizing the RAN control entity in a central location. For example, the device of the first item in the scope of the patent application further includes a mechanism for using the L1 and/or L2 control function to manage one type of the vertical or horizontal slices and then manage other types of vertical or horizontal slices with other slices. Such as the device of the first item of the patent application, where the one or more horizontal slices are related to giant network slices, micro network slices, device-to-device (D2D) slices, personal area networks, dependent modes, anchored upgrades Compressor architecture. An electronic device for realizing a radio access network (RAN) control entity, the electronic device comprising: a circuit for: identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN, and the vertical slices are related to the vertical market segment of the RAN ; Identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, the horizontal slices are segmented with respect to the network hierarchy of the RAN; and cut the RAN into the one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices, wherein the RAN includes the first Layer (L1) and/or Layer 2 (L2) control functions; and a radio frequency (RF) circuit, which is coupled to the circuit, and the RF circuit is used to transmit and/or according to the vertical and/or horizontal slice or part thereof Or receive one or more Signals. For example, the electronic device of the ninth patent application, wherein the RAN control system is used to provide a management plane (m-plane) control function for controlling the network slice of the slice RAN. For example, the electronic device of claim 9, wherein the circuit is further used to manage control plane (c plane) and user plane (u plane) components in one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices. For example, the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, in which the RAN control system is co-located with a giant base station (BS), and the RAN control system only manages vertical and/or horizontal slices, or its coverage in the giant BS The part within the range. For example, the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the RAN control system is used to manage vertical and/or horizontal slices within the coverage of a plurality of base stations (BS). For example, the electronic device of the 9th patent application, wherein the L1 control function is the physical (PHY) layer, and wherein the L2 control function is the medium access control (MAC) layer. For example, the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, where the L1 and L2 control functions are hierarchical, so that the lower-level part (or multiple parts) controls the operation of each slice, and the higher-level part coordinates the operations across the slices MAC operation. For example, the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, wherein the L1 and L2 control functions are used to manage vertical and/or horizontal slices. For example, the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, where the L1 and / Or the L2 control function is used to manage one type of the vertical or horizontal slice, which then manages other types of vertical or horizontal slices. For example, in the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, the one or more vertical slices are related to mobile broadband (MBB) slices, machine type communication (MTC) slices, and vehicle (V2X) communication slices in any position. For example, the electronic device of item 9 of the scope of patent application, where the one or more horizontal slices are related to giant network slices, micro network slices, device-to-device (D2D) slices, personal area networks, dependent mode, anchored Booster architecture. An electronic device for realizing a radio access network (RAN) control entity, the electronic device comprising: a circuit for: identifying one or more vertical slices of the RAN, and the use cases of the vertical slices regarding the communication of the RAN ; Identify one or more horizontal slices of the RAN, where the horizontal slices include network hierarchical parts that can be defined with the function of offloading the entities that form the horizontal slices; and cut the RAN into the one or more Vertical and/or horizontal slicing; and a radio frequency (RF) circuit coupled to the circuit, and the RF circuit is used to transmit and/or receive one or more signals according to the vertical and/or horizontal slicing, wherein the RAN includes Level 1 (L1) and/or Level 2 (L2) control functions. Such as the electronic device of the 20th patent application, wherein the circuit is further used to manage the control in one or more vertical and/or horizontal slices The plane (c plane) and the user plane (u plane) components, or parts thereof. For example, the 20th electronic device in the scope of the patent application, wherein the one or more vertical slices are related to the separable communication use case to be transmitted or received through the RAN, which includes one or more of the following: Mobile Broadband (MBB) ) Use cases, machine type communication (MTC) use cases, any location vehicle (V2X) communication use cases, health network use cases, industrial control use cases. A radio access network (RAN) control entity for logically slicing the RAN into one or more horizontal or vertical slices, where: vertical slices include predetermined types of communication; horizontal slices include definable and capable of forming the horizontal slice The RAN or the predetermined layer of the system of the network-level part of the offloaded functions between entities; the RAN control entity includes: (i) control the allocation of at least a part of the RAN resources according to the needs of the one or more horizontal or vertical slices , And (ii) Layer 1 (L1) and/or Layer 2 (L2) control functions. Such as the radio access network (RAN) control entity of the 23rd patent application, wherein the RAN includes at least two vertical slices and at least two horizontal slices. For example, the radio access network (RAN) control entity of the 23rd patent application, wherein the predetermined type of communication relates to the market segment of the RAN used for communication or a specific type of communication. For example, the radio access network (RAN) control entity of item 23 of the scope of patent application, wherein the radio access network (RAN) control system spans Multiple parts of the RAN are distributed. For example, the radio access network (RAN) control entity of the 23rd patent application, in which multiple parts of the RANs are evolved node Bs (eNBs) of the RAN. Such as the radio access network (RAN) control entity of the 23rd patent application, where the predetermined layers of the RAN include a giant base station (BS) layer, a small BS layer, a device-to-device layer, a wearable layer, or a personal area Network (PAN) layer. For example, the radio access network (RAN) control entity of the 28th patent application, where the smaller base station includes any one of a micro BS, a pico BS, a femto BS or a smaller BS.

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