Koninklijke Kpn N.v.

Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Tno

Koninklike Kpn N.v.

Koninkluke Kpn N.v.

Lucia D'Acunto

Toni Dimitrovski

Ray Van Brandenburg

Pieter Albert Nooren

Bastiaan Wissingh

Konstantinos Trichias

Mattijs Oskar Van Deventer

Emmanuel Thomas

Jan Willem Martin Kleinrouweler

Simon Gunkel

Eelco Cramer

Arjen Veenhuizen

Miodrag Djurica

Piotr Wojciech Zuraniewski

Jan-Willem Martin Kleinrouweler

Wiltfried Pathuis

Emmanuel Didier Rémi Thomas

Wieger IJntema

Amritpal Singh Gill

Thomas Attema

Pieter Nooren

A method comprises receiving a data object request to serve a data object and transmitting bid requests to a plurality of systems. The data object request identifies the data object and the bid requests comprise information relating to the data object and request the plurality of systems to provide a bid value for serving and/or caching the data object. The method further comprises determining a best bid from one or more bid values received in response to the transmitted bid requests and redirecting or forwarding the data object request to the system which transmitted the best bid and/or requesting the system which transmitted the best bid to cache the data object.

Auctioning the serving and/or caching of a data object

The invention relates to a system configured as an orchestration function for a mobile network, wherein the mobile network comprises edge nodes which are configurable to provide edge computing resources to mobile devices, wherein the system is configured to at least in part orchestrate a migration of an edge computing resource for a mobile device from a first edge node to a second edge node. The orchestration function and the mobile device interact to enable the orchestration function to start the migration of the edge computing resource in a timely manner.

Orchestrating migration of edge computing resources

A streaming assistance system may be provided which may be connected to at least two network links, for example via respective network interfaces. Both network links may have different characteristics, e.g., in terms of throughput, utilization, latency, etc. The streaming assistance system may assist in the streaming of media content to a client device by identifying a media fragment which is likely to be requested by the client device in the (near) future, selecting a network link to be used for the streaming of the media segment, and effecting a prefetching of the media segment via the selected network link. In some embodiments, the streaming assistance system may be a DASH Aware Network Element (DANE).

Streaming assistance system and computer-implemented method

A network node () is configured to receive an interest message comprising a request for a data object and metadata. The metadata specifies one or more criteria for selecting a subset of a plurality of items. The network node is further configured to determine whether there is a match between the requested data object and a plurality of items (e.g. from a CS or FIB) and select a subset of the plurality of items by applying the one or more criteria if the match has been determined to exist. At least one of the criteria is a preference specified for at least one of: factual properties of the plurality of items, usage data related to the plurality of items, usage data related to the at least one communication interface, an effort to obtain data from another network node, and a position in a range specified in the interest message.

Selecting from a plurality of items which match an interest

The invention relates to a communication network which is configured to enable instantiation of network slices which represent virtual networks. The invention further relates to a content application server (CAS) for providing an application service via a network slice to at least one user equipment (UE). A network function (SREF) is provided which on the one hand may have access to one or more slice management network functions (CSMF, NSMF, NSSMF) and on the other hand may be accessible to the CAS. The network function (SREF) may abstract the properties of the network slice using a data structure representing a slice object and expose these abstracted properties to the CAS by providing access to the slice object. The slice object may comprise modifiable properties which represent modifiable properties of the corresponding network slice. The CAS may at least in part manage the network slice by modifying one or more modifiable properties, and the SREF may then translate the modified properties into one or more requests for the slice management network functions. The SREF may thereby enable the CAS to perform slice management, while at the same time reducing the complexity of the slice management.

Third party network and network slice management

A communication network may be provided having a plurality of network nodes and which may be configured to enable instantiation of different network slices which represent virtual networks with different feature sets, e.g., providing different network functions and/or having different network characteristics. The communication network may be configured to allow a network slice to be used for data communication between i) a user equipment (UE) connected to the network and configured to execute an application, and ii) a content or application server (CAS) configured to provide an application service via the network. Network functions may be provided which allow influencing the UE's slice usage based on requirements of the application service, even if the CAS is located outside the connectivity provider's network, e.g., outside a mobile operator's domain.

Network slice usage

An interface may be provided between i) a selective forwarding unit (SFU) configured to, in real-time, receive a data stream from a sender via a first network link of a communication network and selectively forward the data stream to one or more receivers via respective second network links, and ii) one or more core network functions (PCF, PCRF, NSMF, CSMF) for establishing service guarantees for data flows in the communication network. In a specific example, the interface may be established as a network function (SMGF) which translates streaming requirements for one-to-many flows coming from WebRTC SFUs into appropriate QoS/network slice configurations, such that the quality of RTC flows may be increased. Accordingly, negative side-effects of conservative congestion control algorithms in WebRTC clients and static/overprovisioned QoS at network operators may be overcome.

Facilitating real-time transport of data streams

A first system () is configured to transmit an interest message, e.g. to a router (). The interest message specifies criteria identifying data units from an area of interest, e.g. an intersection, which are to be aggregated and comprises at least one parameter specifying how the data units are requested to be aggregated. A second system () is configured to receive the interest message from a sender, e.g. a router (), determine whether the system will return an aggregation of data units matching the criteria, and return a data message comprising an aggregation of data units matching the criteria to the sender () if the processing means have determined that the system will return an aggregation of data units matching the criteria. The data units are aggregated in the data message in dependence on how the data units were requested to be aggregated.

Transmitting and receiving an interest message specifying an aggregation parameter

In a communication network, a network function may be provided for controlling Information Centric Networking (ICN) protocol-based traffic flow between a set of user equipment (UE). This network function may be an ICN application function (ICN-AF), and may obtain information indicative of whether, and optionally to which degree, a respective ICN node is publisher of content in the exchange of content between the ICN nodes. The ICN-AF may, for example via a session management function (SMF), initiate a reassignment of a PDU session of an ICN node which is presumed to be a requester of content to a data network access point which has connectivity to, or is the same as, a data network access point assigned to an ICN node which is characterized as publisher of content.

Information-centric networking over 5G or later networks

In a communication network, a network function may be provided for controlling Information Centric Networking (ICN) protocol-based traffic flow between a set of user equipment (UE). This network function may be an ICN application function (ICN-AF), and may obtain ICN layer information from an ICN router which is indicative of a congestion state of a current PDU session of user equipment. If the congestion state indicates congestion, the ICN-AF may initiate establishment of a new PDU session for the user equipment (UE1) or initiate upgrade of a quality of service (QoS) characteristic of the current PDU session, for example using the session management function (SMF) and via the SMF's session management of PDU sessions.

A method is described for processing an omnidirectional video by a client device, said omnidirectional video being associated with a 3D coordinate system for determining a spatial position of video data of said omnidirectional video on a curved surface, preferably a sphere, said method comprising: receiving a manifest file, the manifest file comprising a plurality of tile stream identifiers for identifying a plurality of tile streams, the tile streams comprising video frames having image views, whereby the image views of video frames of different tile streams cover different regions of a 2D projection of the omnidirectional video, a region defining a tile; selecting on the basis of spatial relation information in the manifest file and on the basis of a viewpoint of a user of the client device a first tile streams associated with a first resolution and a first tile position and a second tile stream associated with a second resolution and a second tile position, the second resolution being lower than the first resolution, wherein the spatial relation information defines for each tile a tile position and wherein the viewpoint defines a viewing direction of the user, tile position and the viewpoint being defined on the basis of coordinates of the 3D coordinate system.

Spatially tiled omnidirectional video streaming

In a communication network with separate data planes including a control plane and a user plane, an application function is provided as a combination of an application function control plane (AF-CP) part operating in the network's control plane and an application function user plane (AF-UP) part operating in the network's user plane. The application function user plane part may be configured for the application-specific processing of user data, and instanced multiple times. The application function control plane part may be configured to support selecting an optimal instance of the application function user plane part for a particular UE.

Application function in a network and control thereof

The invention relates to a system for receiving an interest message. The system comprises at least one communication interface, at least one memory and at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to receive an interest message on a first one of the at least one communication interface. The interest message comprises a name of a requested data object. At least one name component of the name of the requested data object comprises a range. The at least one processor is further configured to determine whether the at least one memory comprises a named data object having a name matching the name of the requested data object and to provide the named data object on the first one of the at least one communication interface if the memory comprises the named data object. The at least one processor is also configured to, if the memory does not comprise the named data object, forward the interest message on one or more further ones of the at least one communication interface, associate the name of the requested data object with an identifier of the first one of the at least one communication interface in the at least one memory, receive the named data object on the one or more further ones of the at least one communication interface and forward the named data object on the first one of the at least one communication interface based on the association.

Systems and methods for transmitting and receiving interest messages

A method is described for providing one or more patches to a client device. The method may comprise determining manifest file version information of a manifest file that is used by the client device; detecting an indication that one or more patches have been missed, a patch comprising information for updating at least part of information in the manifest file; requesting one or more missed patches on the basis of the manifest file version information (and the version information of the manifest file that the client would obtain after having applied the last missed patch&#x2014;if available); and, receiving the one or more missed patches for updating the information in the manifest file.

Growing community of inventors

Delft, Netherlands

Lucia D'Acunto