British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

Andrew Corston-Petrie

Ruth Brown

Jonathan Hart

Maria Cuevas Ramirez

Francisco Faus Gregori

A computer-implemented method () of operating a telecommunications network (-), said telecommunications network comprising a plurality of nodes (), and the method comprising the steps of: storing: a set of historic reconfiguration instructions, said instructions having been used to reconfigure the telecommunications network; first status information from each of the plurality of nodes, wherein said first status information is received prior to reconfiguring the telecommunications network according to a given historic reconfiguration instruction; and second status information from each of the plurality of nodes, wherein said second status information is received after reconfiguring the telecommunications network according to the given historic reconfiguration instruction; receiving a new reconfiguration instruction (); prior to reconfiguring the telecommunications network according to the new reconfiguration instruction, identifying from the set a similar historic reconfiguration instruction having a similarity to the new reconfiguration instruction within a tolerance threshold; comparing the first and the second status information associated with the identified similar historic reconfiguration instruction so as to determine whether the identified similar historic reconfiguration instruction resulted in a detrimental effect to performance of the telecommunications network; in dependence on whether the identified similar historic reconfiguration instruction resulted in a detrimental effect, calculating a success confidence metric for the new reconfiguration instruction, said metric representing a probability that a reconfiguration instruction does not result in a detrimental effect to performance of the telecommunications network (); and if the success confidence metric is: greater than a predetermined threshold value, reconfiguring the telecommunications network according to the new reconfiguration instruction (); or less than a predetermined threshold value, preventing reconfiguration of the telecommunications network according to the new reconfiguration instruction ().

Method of operating a telecommunications network

A computer-implemented method () of managing a telecommunications network (), the telecommunication network comprising a network orchestrator (), a plurality of network nodes () and a network ledger () for electronically storing data, the method comprising the steps of: the network orchestrator generating an instruction for reconfiguring at least one of the plurality of nodes (); in response to generating said instruction, requesting and retrieving first status information from the at least one of the plurality of nodes (); recording the instruction and the first status information to the network ledger ()); communicating the instruction to the at least one of the plurality of nodes thereby to effect the instructed reconfiguration (); in response to effecting the instructed reconfiguration, requesting and retrieving second status information from the at least one of the plurality of nodes; and recording said second status information in the network ledger ().

This disclosure provides a method, and a network node for implementing the method, for establishing a multi-domain network slice in a telecommunications network, the telecommunications network being an internetwork of a first network domain and second network domain, in which the first network domain and second network domain are of different network types being one of an access network, backhaul network and a core network, wherein a network node includes a network slice database storing data on a plurality of network slices established in the first and second network domains.

Telecommunications network

The method of managing processing resources in a telecommunications network, the telecommunications network having a plurality of network slices and a User Equipment (UE), wherein the UE is allocated to a first network slice to process a network communication from the UE, the method comprising the steps of: monitoring a suitability of the first network slice to process the network communication; identifying a second network slice that is suitable for processing the network communication; and in response to identifying a lack of suitability of the first network slice to process the network communication, reallocating processing resources from the second network slice to the first network slice whilst the UE remains allocated to the first network slice.

Network slice management

A method of managing traffic flow through a multi-node network, the multi-node network interlinking a first mobile network and a second mobile network, the method including, when a subscriber user equipment entity that has as a home network the first mobile network and that is operating in the second mobile network attempts to establish a connection to a correspondent user equipment entity: communicating a connection request message from the second network to the first network over a first route via a set of nodes of the multi-node network; at least one of the nodes of the set: identifying a candidate alternative route between nodes of the multi-node network for at least part of a connection between the subscriber user equipment entity and the correspondent user equipment entity; and transmitting an indication of the candidate alternative route to a controller; and the controller selecting, in accordance with predetermined criteria, one of the first route and the at least one candidate alternative route and causing the connection to be established between the subscriber user equipment entity and the correspondent user equipment entity at least partially over the selected route.

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London, United Kingdom

Andrew Corston-Petrie