Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast-natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Tno

Koninklijke Kpn N.v.

Koninklike Kpn N.v.

Koninkluke Kpn N.v.

Pieter Albert Nooren

Toni Dimitrovski

Lucia D'Acunto

Wieger Ijntema

Mattijs Oskar Van Deventer

Bastiaan Wissingh

Jan Willem Martin Kleinrouweler

Sjors Braam

Antonius Norp

Nicolaas Wijnand Keesmaat

Antonius Hendrikus Norp

Next generation network architectures enable instantiation of network slices in which traffic may be transported via one or more virtual networks overlaying the physical network infrastructure. Multiple of such network slices may share a resource of a particular network function, such as a bandwidth, switching capacity, computing capacity and/or storage capacity of the network function. It may be desirable to provide guarantees on the minimum resource availability of the shared resource per network slice. Accordingly, a slice resource distribution function (SRDF) may be provided which may be configured manage the resource utilization of the shared resource which may safeguard guarantees on the minimum resource availability per network slice.

Managing resource utilization by multiple network slices

A control system enables re-registration of user equipment (UE) on an alternative network in the event of a partial failure of a network (VPLMN) for wireless communication. An access and mobility management function (AMF) manages the communication to user equipment (UE) via network slices (). A slice priority management function (SPM) receives data indicative of a change in the network's ability to maintain the instantiated network slices and determines to reduce services via affected network slices. Before said slice reduction, the access and mobility management function is informed and sends a slice reduction message to the user equipment. In the UE an alternate network selection function (ANSF) receives the slice reduction message and selects an alternate network based on the user information (USIM) and the slice reduction information, and triggers registration on the selected alternate network for transferring at least part of the affected services to a network slice of the selected alternate network.

Reregistration during network slice failure

A client device (CLD) for a mobile network may comprise two radios (R-, R-) for establishing simultaneous mobile data connections to at least two mobile networks, for example at a country border at which the client device leaves the network range of one mobile network and enters the network range of another. The client device may further be configured to utilize an edge application service (EDG-APP) of a mobile network. To coordinate the switch in connectivity and edge utilization between such different mobile pp networks, a client function (CDCF) may be provided in the client device while separate instances of a network function (EDCF) may be provided in each edge enabling platform of each mobile network. Together, the CDCF and the EDCFs may orchestrate the migration of the edge application service between the mobile networks, in a manner which respects the requirements for separation of concerns, e.g., between a mobile network's operator and an application service provider (ASP).

Seamless roaming for edge computing with dual connectivity

Next generation network architectures enable instantiation of network slices in which traffic may be transported via one or more virtual networks overlaying the physical network infrastructure. To enable a slice management system to be able to obtain information on virtual networks of instantiated network slices, such as utilization data indicative of at least one of: a bandwidth capacity, computing capacity and storage capacity of one or more physical links via which traffic of the virtual networks is routed, an interfacing system is provided. The interfacing system may establish an interface between the slice management system operating in the domain of network slices and the network management system operating in the domain of physical network equipment, and thereby enable the slice management system to take into account such utilization data in its slice management operation.

Providing interface between network management and 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

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.

Embodiments provide functionality for dynamic handling of network slice priorities. In an embodiment, a slice priority manager receives, from a network services node, data indicating changes in network resources available for maintaining instantiated network slices in a communication network. Based on the received data, changes in the network services node's ability to maintain the instantiated network slices are identified and a communication service provider is notified of the change. To continue, slice priority data that indicates a preferred order of a portion of the network slices for allocating the network resources is received from the communication service provider. In turn, an indication of the slice priority data is forwarded to the network services node to update allocation of network resources for the slices.

Dynamic slice priority handling

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

Different quality of service policies are enforced for packets from traffic streams of different type in a communication network, according to the type of traffic types of traffic. A learning phase and an operation phase are provided. The learning phase teaching by example of characteristics that must be used to distinguish the different types of traffic. In the learning phase, an indication is received of a quality of service policy that is required for user applications of a selected type. An indication is provided indicating execution of a user application of said type in a user domain and characteristics of packet traffic are derived from inspection of packets transmitted through the communication network to and/or from the user domain during the indicated execution. In the operation phase packet traffic in the network to and/or from the user domain is inspected. It is detected whether observed characteristics of the packet traffic match the derived characteristics. When a match is detected, enforcement of the quality of service policy in the network to packet traffic of the selected type of user application is triggered.

Telecommunication quality of service control

An address for controlling transmission of routing through a network is obtained by means of input from a combination of network terminals. Initially, address describing data is received from a user via a source terminal. A control circuit determines whether the address describing data is sufficient to define an address of a destination. If not, the control circuit uses the address describing data to extract information must be met by the destination, but for which it is not known for specific destinations whether it is met. The information may define a desired property of the destination for example, or a mutual relation between the user and the destination. The control circuit then transmits a confirmation request to one or more possible destinations, to ask whether information relates to the possible destination. If a positive confirmation is received back from a possible destination, the address of this possible destination is used. Information that the information relates to the possible destination may be stored to resolve future address describing information.

Growing community of inventors

Den Hoorn, Netherlands

Pieter Albert Nooren