British Telecommunications Public Limited Company

British Telecommunications Corporation

Jonathan Hart

Ruth Brown

Maria Cuevas Ramirez

Andrew Corston-Petrie

Richard MacKenzie

David Townend

Maria Cuevas

Svilen Mirtchev

Milan Lalovic

Mona Ghassemian

A method () of reconfiguring a telecommunications network (), the telecommunications network being configured to facilitate telehaptic communication with a User Equipment (UE) (), the method comprising the steps of: processing a network communication so as to determine a likelihood of future telehaptic communication with the UE (); determining that said likelihood of future telehaptic communication exceeds a threshold value (); and in response to said determining, reconfiguring the telecommunications network so as to improve network performance for the UE ().

Method of reconfiguring a telecommunications network

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 method of operating a radio access point so as to provide network slicing functionality, the radio access point providing a radio access network for a telecommunications network and the radio access point comprising a plurality of antenna elements, the method comprising the steps of: reserving a portion of the plurality of antenna elements for use only by a given network slice, the reserved portion of the plurality of antenna elements forming a set of antenna elements; receiving, at each of the plurality of antenna elements, a wireless signal from a User Equipment of the telecommunications network identifying the UE from the received wireless signal; determining that the identified UE is allocated to the given network slice; in response to the determining, the radio access point processing only the wireless signal as received by the set of antenna elements.

Method of controlling a radio access point

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 ().

A method of managing a telecommunications network, the telecommunications network having a first user and a second user, the method comprising the step of: ascertaining a competitive characteristic associated with the first user and a competitive characteristic associated with the second user; comparing the ascertained competitive characteristics; identifying whether there is a disparity between the competitive characteristics that exceeds a threshold, thereby to identify a competitive advantage associated with the first or second user; and if it is identified that the disparity exceeds the threshold, adapting a network configuration of a network connection associated with the first user so as to offset the competitive advantage associated with the first or second user.

Network management

A method of controlling an Autonomous Vehicle (AV), comprising the steps of: detecting a fault in a first AV-; in response to detecting said fault, transmitting a communication for alerting an AV of the fault, wherein said communication is a device-to-device wireless communication; receiving said communication at a second AV-; identifying the second AV as being capable of retrieving at least part of the first AV and delivering said at least part to an intended destination; and instructing the second AV to perform the retrieving and delivering.

Vehicle management

A method of selecting competitors for a multi-user competitive activity being performed over a telecommunications network, in which a first UE and a second UE are in communication with the telecommunications network, and the telecommunications network providing at least one network slice, wherein the method comprises the steps of: identifying a network slice onto which the first UE is allocated; identifying a network slice onto which the second UE is allocated; determining that the first UE and the second UE are intending to participate in the multi-user competitive activity; and selecting the first UE and the second UE to participate in the multi-user competitive activity in dependence on the identified network slices onto which the first UE and the second UE is allocated.

Competitor selection

A method of authenticating a device subscribed to a first wireless communication network on a second wireless communication network, the method including: deriving at a node within the first wireless communication network a set of one or more network keys for the second wireless communication network from one or more network keys of the first wireless communication network that uniquely identify the device within the first wireless communication network; communicating the derived set of one or more network keys to the device; storing a first copy of the derived set of one or more network keys within an identification module at the device and a second copy of the derived set of one or more network keys within a secure area of the device; and authenticating the device on the second wireless communication network using the second copy of the derived set of one or more network keys stored in the secure area of the device.

Wireless communication network authentication

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

In a method of operating a content delivery network having a plurality of content caches to deliver requested content to at least one user device, the user device has one or more access network interfaces for connection to content caches of the content delivery network via one or more respective access networks, and the method is performed by a content delivery route decision function running on the user device and interfacing with the content delivery network and the access networks.

Path selection for content delivery network

A method of managing data bearers between a cellular network subscriber device and a packet data gateway in a cellular network core, the cellular network subscriber device and the packet data gateway being connected by a default bearer, the method including receiving at least one dedicated bearer request for a communication session between the cellular network subscriber device and an external network resource; comparing at least one parameter of the received dedicated bearer against a set of predetermined rules; and if at least one parameter of the received dedicated bearer request matches at least one of the set of predetermined rules: storing the at least one parameter of the received dedicated bearer request; and sending a message to the subscriber device to cause the cellular network subscriber device and packet data gateway to use the default bearer for the communication session.

Dedicated bearer management

A method of operating a device, the device being configured to communicate with a wireless telecommunications network and the device being in the form of an Autonomous Vehicle (AV), the method comprising the steps of: detecting a fault associated with the AV; and in response to detecting said fault, causing the AV to transmit a mayday wireless network communication for alerting the wireless telecommunications network of the fault; in response to the mayday wireless network communication, identifying a recovery AV that is capable of retrieving at least part of the AV and delivering said at least part to an intended destination; and instructing the recovery AV to perform the retrieving and delivering by communicating an instructing message, wherein the instructing message is in the form of a system information message.

Device management

A method of establishing bearers for a device in a wireless communication network, including collecting for the device data over a period of time from communication sessions the device participates in, at least some of the communication sessions being supported by a default bearer and a dedicated bearer; calculating from the collected data a likelihood a dedicated bearer will be established for the device at one or more different times values, and predicting the dedicated bearer will be established for the device at a time value if the likelihood of establishment at that time value exceeds a specified threshold; and initiating establishment of the dedicated bearer to establish the dedicated bearer for the predicted time value.

Predictive bearers in a wireless communication network

The disclosure provides an improved method of operating a mobile terminal or user equipment in a cellular telecommunications network to efficiently discover preferred cells, in particular a HeNB, prior to connecting. Whilst constant searching for a preferred cell can ensure it is found as soon as it is within range, this has a significant impact on resources at the UE, such as battery power, and can disrupt any existing services that might be running. The proposed method determines the probability of the UE being within range of a preferred cell based on measurements already available to the UE or by the network. Additional measurements can then be made as required, and made with increasing frequency as the probability of being within range of the preferred cell increases.

Telecommunications network

A method of establishing bearers for a device in a wireless communication network, including collecting for the device data over a period of time from communication sessions the device participates in, the communication sessions supported by a first and second bearer for the network wherein the first bearer transports packets of the second bearer between nodes of the network; calculating from the collected data a likelihood the first bearer will be established for the device at one or more different time values, and predicting the first bearer will be established for the device at a time value if the likelihood of establishment at that time value exceeds a specified threshold; and initiating establishment of the first bearer to establish the first bearer for the predicted time value.

Growing community of inventors

London, United Kingdom

Jonathan Hart