WO2022165373A1

WO2022165373A1 - Data policy admin function in non-real time (rt) radio access network intelligent controller (ric)

Info

Publication number: WO2022165373A1
Application number: PCT/US2022/014617
Authority: WO
Inventors: Dawei YING; Leifeng RUAN; Zongrui DING; Jaemin HAN; Qian Li; Geng Wu
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2021-02-01
Filing date: 2022-01-31
Publication date: 2022-08-04

Abstract

The present invention relates to a data policy administration function (DPAF) in a non-real time (non-RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC) in an open RAN (O-RAN) network, wherein the DPAF is configured to: receive, from a service consumer including one or more other non-RT RIC functions, a create request to create one or more data policies; and create and manage the one or more data policies based on the create request.

Description

DATA POLICY ADMIN FUNCTION IN NON-REAL TIME (RT) RADIO ACCESS NETWORK INTELLIGENT CONTROLLER (RIC)

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/144,392, which was filed February 1, 2021.

FIELD

Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. For example, some embodiments may relate to data policy admin function in non-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC).

BACKGROUND

Open RAN (O-RAN) is working on inserting artificial intelligence (Al) and machine learning (ML) into wireless communication network (see O-RAN WG1, “O-RAN Architecture Description”). Non real-time RAN intelligent controllers (Non-RT RIC) are being developed to manage and optimize RAN operation using third party AI/ML-assisted solutions/applications (See O-RAN WG2, “Non-RT RIC: Functional Architecture,” vOl.OO. Non-RT RIC framework would provide data management services to those registered applications (rApps).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 schematically illustrates a Non-RT RIC Functional Architecture in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 2 schematically illustrates a data policy administration function (DPAF) in a Non- RT RIC framework in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 3 illustrates a procedure for establishment of a data delivery policy in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 4 illustrates a procedure for modification of a data delivery policy (e.g., initiated by data repository) in accordance with various embodiments

Figure 5 illustrates a procedure for termination of a data delivery policy in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 6 illustrates a procedure for establishment or modification of a collection policy in accordance with various embodiments. Figure 7 illustrates a procedure for termination or modification of a collection policy in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 8 illustrates a procedure for establishment of a data sharing policy in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 9 illustrates a procedure for termination of a data sharing policy in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 10 illustrates a procedure for modification or termination of data policies (e.g., initiated by the DPAF), DPAF services and service operations in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 11 illustrates a data policy service create operation in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 12 illustrates a data policy service update operation in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 13 illustrates a data policy service update notify operation (e.g., policy update initiated by DPAF) in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 14 illustrates a data policy service update notify operation (e.g., policy termination initiated by DPAF) in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 15 illustrates a data policy service deletion operation in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 16 illustrates a procedure of querying a data policy (e.g., query a specific data policy) in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 17 illustrates a procedure to query the status of a data policy in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 18 illustrates a uniform resource identifier (URI) structure of the Rdpaf XxxPolicy Admin application programming interface (API) in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 19 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 20 schematically illustrates components of a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 21 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Figure 22 provides a high-level view of an Open RAN (O-RAN) architecture in accordance with various embodiments.

Figure 23 shows the Uu interface between a UE 2301 and O-e/gNB 2310 as well as between the UE 2301 and O-RAN components in accordance with various embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A or B” and “A/B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B).

Embodiments herein provide a data policy administration function in the Non-RT RIC for data policy management. rApps can register as data producers and/or data consumers in the Non- RT RIC framework. These rApps can request or subscribe data, which is collected from RAN, external sources, and other rApps. In U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/138,237, the present inventors described data policy administration services exposed to rApps via the R1 interface. Various embodiments herein relate to the interaction between data policy administration function and other Non-RT RIC framework functions. The data policy administration function manages data delivery, collection, retention, sharing, processing, and disposal policy. A complete data plane design to enable data as a service (DaaS) can be found in another previously filed application by the present inventors, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/061,100.

Various embodiments herein provide a data policy administration function (DPAF) within Non-RT RIC. It manages data policy for delivery, collection, retention, sharing, processing, and disposal. The procedures of data policy handled by the DPAF within Non-RT RIC framework are illustrated.

No data policy administration function defined yet in Non-RT RIC functional architecture. No data policy administration services defined within the Non-RT RIC framework.

Non-RT RIC functional architecture and R1 interface

In O-RAN overall architecture, Non-RT RIC is to provide policy -based guidance and enrichment information to Near-RT RIC for better RAN optimization and operation. Non-RT RIC is also responsible for AI/ML model management in O-RAN (See O-RAN WG1, “O-RAN Architecture Description”). The functional architecture of Non-RT RIC is illustrated in Figure 1.

As shown in the above figure, 3rd party modular applications (rApps) are deployed in Non-RT RIC for open and intelligent RAN operation and optimization. They leverage the functionality exposed by the Non-RT RIC to provide value added services, including AI/ML- assisted solutions. rApps are required to register their needed input data and generate output data to the Non-RT RIC framework. The generated data can be used to form Al policies and Al enrichment information for Near-RT RIC. It may also be consumed by other rApps in the Non- RT RIC.

Data policy administration function (DPAF) and procedures

Data policy administration function (DPAF) manages various data policies, including data delivery policy, data collection policy, data retention policy, data sharing policy, data processing policy, and data disposal policy. In the Non-RT RIC functional architecture, the DPAF is proposed to be a part of Non-RT RIC framework as shown in Figure 2. DPAF provides data policy administration services, which can be used by other Non-RT RIC framework functions via the service-based interface “Rdpaf’. Data policy administration services include administration for all six types of data policy mentioned above.

In the description of various embodiments herein, it may be assumed that data repository is responsible for data collection, processing, storage, and delivery. Please note that the detail structure of data repository, e.g., its messaging infrastructure and underlying data storage techniques are out of the scope of this document. Moreover, it may be assumed that data catalog handles data sharing and data exposure to data consumer rApps.

The following data policy procedures focus on the interaction within Non-RT RIC framework (e.g., the DPAF services are not visible to rApps.) For data policy administration service over R1 and the interactions between DPAF and rApps, more details are found in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/138,237.

In a data subscription request, a data consumer rApp can specify how often the Non-RT RIC delivers the subscribed/requested data, and how many data points/samples get bundled into a patch for delivery. These specific requirements can form a data delivery policy, and it would be enforced by the data repository.

The establishment of a delivery policy based on subscription request from rApp is illustrated in Figure 3. If the data consumer rApp updates its subscription, data repository can update the delivery policy correspondingly, as shown in Figure 4. The termination of a delivery policy based on un-subscription request from rApp is illustrated in Figure 5. Based on the subscription request, Non-RT RIC framework can configure how to collect data from a registered data producer rApp, e.g., the time interval between two data patch collection and the size of a patch, etc. This information forms a data collection policy, and it would be enforced by the data repository.

If there is no existing policy for the intended data producer rApp, then a new data collection policy should be established. Otherwise, data repository can choose to modify the existing data collection policy to satisfy the new subscription request. For example, if the producer rApp A is generating location prediction data for a set of UEs {UE_id = 2, 3, 5, 10} for consumer rApp P, and a subscription request from another consumer rApp Q seeks the UE location prediction analysis for another set of UEs {UE id = 10, 11, 20}, then data repository can choose to modify the collection policy for rApp A and expand the scope of collected location prediction for UEs to the set of {UE id = 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 20}. The procedure is illustrated in Figure 6.

Similarly, based on the un-subscription request, a data collection policy can be modified or terminated. Going back the previous example, if rApp P un-subscribes the location prediction analysis for the set ofUEs {UE_id = 2, 3, 5, 10}. The collection policy for rApp A can be modified and the scope of collection is shrunken to UEs {UE_id = 10, 11, 20}. (Note that data from UE #10 is still collected for rApp Q.) Once the rApp Q also sends out the un-subscription, then the collection policy can be terminated. The procedure is illustrated in Figure 7.

For data collected from a data producer rApp, a data retention policy about how long the collected data can/should be kept inside the Non-RT RIC framework before deletion can be established based on inputs from both data producer rApp and data consumer rApp. Similarly, a data disposal policy is about when the collected data can/should be removed from the Non-RT RIC framework (e.g., by defining event-trigger conditions).

The data processing policy specifies how the data is pre-processed before delivering to the data consumer rApps (e.g., whether the Non-RT RIC sends raw data or quantified data to the rApp). It specifies how the data is post-processed after data is collected from the data producer rApps. It also specifies how to correlate data (based on temporal, spatial, data source information, etc.) and how to label/attach attributes to the data (e.g. adding time stamps to data).

Data repository would enforce the data retention, disposal, and processing policy. The interactions between data repository and DPAF for policy establishment, modification, and termination are similar to the previous figures.

In the registration request of a data producer rApp, it can specify what kind of information about the generated data can be exposed to other rApps. A data producer rApp can also specify filtering information about who can/cannot access the shared information about its production data. The collection of information can form a data sharing policy, and it would be enforced by the data catalog.

The establishment of a sharing policy based on registration request from producer rApp is illustrated in Figure 8, and the termination of a delivery policy based on de-registration from rApp is illustrated in Figure 9.

Modification and termination of all types of data policies can be triggered by the DPAF, and the changes would be notified to data repository or data catalog, which is illustrated in Figure 10. The trigger, for example, can due to DPAF detects conflicts among multiple existing data policies, or it could due to changes in operator’s solutions and/or configurations.

Please note that the notation “Xxx” is used as a placeholder for all six types data policies, e.g., the phrase “Xxx” can be replaced by “Delivery”, “Collection”, “Retention”, “Sharing”, “Processing”, and “Disposal” for each individual data policy types. For example, “Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin UpdateNotify” can be interpreted as “Rdpaf DeliveryPolicyAdmin UpdateNotify” in the procedure of the modification of a data delivery policy.

Table 1 illustrates the proposed six DPAF services, one for each type of data policy.

Table 1. DPAF services

Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Create service operation

Figure 11 illustrates the data policy create service operation. The service consumer initiates the data policy creation operation by sending the HTTP POST request to DPAF. The message body carries the data policy object. The DPAF makes the decision about the policy creation request. If the request is accepted, then DPAF sends back an HTTP “201 Created”. The message body carries the established data policy object. A policy ID (xxxPolicyld) is generated by the DPAF to identify the new data policy object. If the requested policy object is failed to be created, then appropriate error code is returned with proper error information in the message body.

Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Update service operation Figure 12 illustrates the data policy update service operation. The service consumer initiates the data policy update operation by sending the HTTP PUT request to DPAF. The message body carries the modified data policy object, and the target URI contains the policy ID (xxxPolicyld). The DPAF makes the decision about the policy update request. If the request is accepted, then DPAF sends back an HTTP “200 OK”. The message body carries the updated data policy object. If the requested policy is failed to be modified, then appropriate error code is returned with proper error information in the message body.

Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin UpdateNotify service operation

Figure 13 and Figure 14 illustrate the data policy update notify service operation. The DPAF initiates data policy update notify operation by sending the HTTP POST request to service consumer which holds the corresponding data policy. If DPAF decides to modify the policy, then the target URI points to the “update” resource identifier in the notification destination ({notificationUrij/update). The message body carries the updated data policy object. The notification address “notificationUri” is contained in the original data policy object provided by the service consumer.

If DPAF decides to terminate the policy, then the target URI points to the “status” resource identifier in the notification destination ({notificationUrij/status). The message body carries the status object of the data policy, which should indicate that the data policy is invalid and to be terminated. Optionally, the reason for data policy becoming invalid can be included in the status resource object. The service consumer sends an HTTP “204 No content” response to the DPAF with empty message body. The service consumer can invoke data policy deletion operation later, to terminate the policy.

Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Delete service operation

Figure 15 illustrates the data policy delete service operation. The service consumer initiates the data policy update operation by sending the HTTP DELETE request to DPAF with the policy ID (xxxPolicyld). The DPAF makes the decision about the policy deletion request. If the request is accepted, then DPAF sends back an HTTP “204 No Content” with empty message body. If the requested policy is failed to be terminated, then appropriate error code is returned with proper error information in the message body.

Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Query service operation

Figure 16 illustrates the procedure of querying a data policy. The service consumer initiates the data policy query service operation by sending the HTTP GET request to the DPAF with the policy ID (xxxPolicyld). The message body is empty. The DPAF sends back an HTTP “200 OK” response. The message body carries the corresponding data policy object for query. If the query fails (e.g., unknown policy ID), then appropriate error code is returned with proper error information in the message body.

Figure 17 Illustrates the procedure of querying the status of a data policy. The service consumer initiates the data policy query service operation by sending the HTTP GET request to the DPAF with the policy ID (xxxPolicyld). The target URI points to the “status” resource identifier of a particular data policy object ({xxxPolicyldJ/status), and the message body is empty. The DPAF sends back an HTTP “200 OK” response. The message body carries the status of corresponding data policy object. If the query fails (e.g., unknown policy ID or data policy objects has been removed), then appropriate error code is returned with proper error information in the message body.

API design examples

The DPAF services use the Rdpaf XxxPolicy Admin APIs, and the URI shall be: {apiRoot}/<apiName>/{apiVersion}/<apiSpecificResourceUriPart>

(e.g., https://rdpaf-xxx-policy-admin-service/vl/...). Again, please note that “Xxx” can be replaced by “Delivery”, “Collection”, “Retention”, “Sharing”, “Processing”, and “Disposal” for each of six data policy types.

The resource URI structure for the Rdpaf XxxPolicy Admin API is illustrated in Figure 18.

An overview of the resource and applicable HTTP methods is summarized in Table 2.

Table 2. Resource and methods overview

SYSTEMS AND IMPLEMENTATIONS

Figures 19-21 and 22-23 illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments.

Figure 19 illustrates a network 1900 in accordance with various embodiments. The network 1900 may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like.

The network 1900 may include a UE 1902, which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 1904 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 1902 may be communicatively coupled with the RAN 1904 by a Uu interface. The UE 1902 may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, loT device, etc.

In some embodiments, the network 1900 may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc.

In some embodiments, the UE 1902 may additionally communicate with an AP 1906 via an over-the-air connection. The AP 1906 may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN 1904. The connection between the UE 1902 and the AP 1906 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 1906 could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE 1902, RAN 1904, and AP 1906 may utilize cellular- WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular- WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 1902 being configured by the RAN 1904 to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

The RAN 1904 may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN 1908. AN 1908 may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE 1902 by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and LI protocols. In this manner, the AN 1908 may enable data/voice connectivity between CN 1920 and the UE 1902. In some embodiments, the AN 1908 may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN 1908 be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN 1908 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells.

In embodiments in which the RAN 1904 includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN 1904 is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN 1904 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The ANs of the RAN 1904 may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE 1902 with an air interface for network access. The UE 1902 may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 1904. For example, the UE 1902 and RAN 1904 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 1902 to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc.

The RAN 1904 may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol.

In V2X scenarios the UE 1902 or AN 1908 may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network.

In some embodiments, the RAN 1904 may be an LTE RAN 1910 with eNBs, for example, eNB 1912. The LTE RAN 1910 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands.

In some embodiments, the RAN 1904 may be an NG-RAN 1914 with gNBs, for example, gNB 1916, or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB 1918. The gNB 1916 may connect with 5G-enabled UEs using a 5GNR interface. The gNB 1916 may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB 1918 may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB 1916 and the ng-eNB 1918 may connect with each other over an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN 1914 and a UPF 1948 (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN1914 and an AMF 1944 (e.g., N2 interface).

The NG-RAN 1914 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE 1902 can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 1902, the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE 1902 with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE 1902 and in some cases at the gNB 1916. A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load.

The RAN 1904 is communicatively coupled to CN 1920 that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE 1902). The components of the CN 1920 may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN 1920 onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN 1920 may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 1920 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

In some embodiments, the CN 1920 may be an LTE CN 1922, which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN 1922 may include MME 1924, SGW 1926, SGSN 1928, HSS 1930, PGW 1932, and PCRF 1934 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN 1922 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The MME 1924 may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE 1902 to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

The SGW 1926 may terminate an SI interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN 1922. The SGW 1926 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The SGSN 1928 may track a location of the UE 1902 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN 1928 may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME 1924; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME 1924 and the SGSN 1928 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP access network mobility in idle/active states.

The HSS 1930 may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS 1930 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS 1930 and the MME 1924 may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN 1920.

The PGW 1932 may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN) 1936 that may include an application/content server 1938. The PGW 1932 may route data packets between the LTE CN 1922 and the data network 1936. The PGW 1932 may be coupled with the SGW 1926 by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW 1932 may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW 1932 and the data network 19 36 may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW 1932 may be coupled with a PCRF 1934 via a Gx reference point.

The PCRF 1934 is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN 1922. The PCRF 1934 may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server 1938 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF 1932 may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI.

In some embodiments, the CN 1920 may be a 5GC 1940. The 5GC 1940 may include an AUSF 1942, AMF 1944, SMF 1946, UPF 1948, NSSF 1950, NEF 1952, NRF 1954, PCF 1956, UDM 1958, and AF 1960 coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC 1940 may be briefly introduced as follows.

The AUSF 1942 may store data for authentication of UE 1902 and handle authentication- related functionality. The AUSF 1942 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC 1940 over reference points as shown, the AUSF 1942 may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF 1944 may allow other functions of the 5GC 1940 to communicate with the UE 1902 and the RAN 1904 and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE 1902. The AMF 1944 may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE 1902), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF 1944 may provide transport for SM messages between the UE 1902 and the SMF 1946, and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF 1944 may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE 1902 and an SMSF. AMF 1944 may interact with the AUSF 1942 and the UE 1902 to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF 1944 may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 1904 and the AMF 1944; and the AMF 1944 may be a termination point of NAS (Nl) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF 1944 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 1902 over an N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 1946 may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 1948 and AN 1908); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF 1948 to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF 1944 overN2 to AN 1908; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE 1902 and the data network 1936.

The UPF 1948 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network 1936, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF 1948 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF- to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 1948 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network.

The NSSF 1950 may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE 1902. The NSSF 1950 may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF 1950 may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE 1902, or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF 1954. The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE 1902 may be triggered by the AMF 1944 with which the UE 1902 is registered by interacting with the NSSF 1950, which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF 1950 may interact with the AMF 1944 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF 1950 may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface.

The NEF 1952 may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3 GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF 1960), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF 1952 may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF 1952 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 1960 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF 1952 may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF 1952 may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF 1952 as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF 1952 to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF 1952 may exhibit an Nnef servicebased interface.

The NRF 1954 may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 1954 also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF 1954 may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface.

The PCF 1956 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF 1956 may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM 1958. In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF 1956 exhibit an Npcf service-based interface.

The UDM 1958 may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE 1902. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 1958 and the AMF 1944. The UDM 1958 may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM 1958 and the PCF 1956, and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 1902) for the NEF 1952. The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR 221 to allow the UDM 1958, PCF 1956, and NEF 1952 to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM- FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM 1958 may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface.

The AF 1960 may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5GC 1940 may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3^rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE 1902 is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC 1940 may select a UPF 1948 close to the UE 1902 and execute traffic steering from the UPF 1948 to data network 1936 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF 1960. In this way, the AF 1960 may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF 1960 is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF 1960 to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF 1960 may exhibit an Naf service-based interface.

The data network 1936 may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server 1938.

Figure 20 schematically illustrates a wireless network 2000 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 2000 may include a UE 2002 in wireless communication with an AN 2004. The UE 2002 and AN 2004 may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein.

The UE 2002 may be communicatively coupled with the AN 2004 via connection 2006. The connection 2006 is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies.

The UE 2002 may include a host platform 2008 coupled with a modem platform 2010.

The host platform 2008 may include application processing circuitry 2012, which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 2014 of the modem platform 2010. The application processing circuitry 2012 may run various applications for the UE 2002 that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry 2012 may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations

The protocol processing circuitry 2014 may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection 2006. The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 2014 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations.

The modem platform 2010 may further include digital baseband circuitry 2016 that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry 2014 in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions.

The modem platform 2010 may further include transmit circuitry 2018, receive circuitry 2020, RF circuitry 2022, and RF front end (RFFE) 2024, which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels 2026. Briefly, the transmit circuitry 2018 may include a digital -to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry 2020 may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 2022 may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE 2024 may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry 2018, receive circuitry 2020, RF circuitry 2022, RFFE 2024, and antenna panels 2026 (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry 2014 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels 2026, RFFE 2024, RF circuitry 2022, receive circuitry 2020, digital baseband circuitry 2016, and protocol processing circuitry 2014. In some embodiments, the antenna panels 2026 may receive a transmission from the AN 2004 by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels 2026. A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry 2014, digital baseband circuitry 2016, transmit circuitry 2018, RF circuitry 2022, RFFE 2024, and antenna panels 2026. In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE 2004 may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels 2026.

Similar to the UE 2002, the AN 2004 may include a host platform 2028 coupled with a modem platform 2030. The host platform 2028 may include application processing circuitry 2032 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 2034 of the modem platform 2030. The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry 2036, transmit circuitry 2038, receive circuitry 2040, RF circuitry 2042, RFFE circuitry 2044, and antenna panels 2046. The components of the AN 2004 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like- named components of the UE 2002. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN 2008 may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Figure 21 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, Figure 21 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 2100 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 2110, one or more memory/storage devices 2120, and one or more communication resources 2130, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 2140 or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 2102 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 2100.

The processors 2110 may include, for example, a processor 2112 and a processor 2114. The processors 2110 may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radiofrequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof.

The memory/storage devices 2120 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 2120 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 2130 may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 2104 or one or more databases 2106 or other network elements via a network 2108. For example, the communication resources 2130 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 2150 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 2110 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 2150 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 2110 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices 2120, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 2150 may be transferred to the hardware resources 2100 from any combination of the peripheral devices 2104 or the databases 2106. Accordingly, the memory of processors 2110, the memory/storage devices 2120, the peripheral devices 2104, and the databases 2106 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

Figure 22 provides a high-level view of an Open RAN (O-RAN) architecture 2200. The O-RAN architecture 2200 includes four O-RAN defined interfaces - namely, the Al interface, the 01 interface, the 02 interface, and the Open Fronthaul Management (M)-plane interface - which connect the Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) framework 2202 to O-RAN network functions (NFs) 2204 and the O-Cloud 2206. The SMO 2202 (described in [013]) also connects with an external system 2210, which provides enrighment data to the SMO 2202. Figure 22 also illustrates that the Al interface terminates at an O-RAN Non-Real Time (RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) 2212 in or at the SMO 2202 and at the O-RAN Near-RT RIC 2214 in or at the O-RAN NFs 2204. The O-RAN NFs 2204 can be VNFs such as VMs or containers, sitting above the O-Cloud 2206 and/or Physical Network Functions (PNFs) utilizing customized hardware. All O-RAN NFs 2204 are expected to support the 01 interface when interfacing the SMO framework 2202. The O-RAN NFs 2204 connect to the NG-Core 2208 via the NG interface (which is a 3GPP defined interface). The Open Fronthaul M-plane interface between the SMO 2202 and the O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) 2216 supports the O-RU 2216 management in the O-RAN hybrid model as specified in [016], The Open Fronthaul M-plane interface is an optional interface to the SMO 2202 that is included for backward compatibility purposes as per [016], and is intended for management of the O-RU 2216 in hybrid mode only. The management architecture of flat mode [012] and its relation to the 01 interface for the 0-RU 2216 is for future study. The 0-RU 2216 termination of the 01 interface towards the SMO 2202 as specified in [012],

Figure 23 shows an 0-RAN logical architecture 2300 corresponding to the 0-RAN architecture 2200 of Figure 22. In Figure 23, the SMO 2302 corresponds to the SMO 2202, O- Cloud 2306 corresponds to the O-Cloud 2206, the non-RT RIC 2312 corresponds to the non-RT RIC 2212, the near-RT RIC 2314 corresponds to the near-RT RIC 2214, and the 0-RU 2316 corresponds to the 0-RU 2216 of Figure 23, respectively. The 0-RAN logical architecture 2300 includes a radio portion and a management portion.

The management portion/side of the architectures 2300 includes the SMO Framework 2302 containing the non-RT RIC 2312, and may include the O-Cloud 2306. The O-Cloud 2306 is a cloud computing platform including a collection of physical infrastructure nodes to host the relevant 0-RAN functions (e.g., the near-RT RIC 2314, O-CU-CP 2321, O-CU-UP 2322, and the 0-DU 2315), supporting software components (e.g., OSs, VMMs, container runtime engines, ML engines, etc.), and appropriate management and orchestration functions.

The radio portion/side of the logical architecture 2300 includes the near-RT RIC 2314, the 0-RAN Distributed Unit (0-DU) 2315, the 0-RU 2316, the 0-RAN Central Unit - Control Plane (O-CU-CP) 2321, and the 0-RAN Central Unit - User Plane (O-CU-UP) 2322 functions. The radio portion/side of the logical architecture 2300 may also include the O-e/gNB 2310.

The 0-DU 2315 is a logical node hosting RLC, MAC, and higher PHY layer entities/elements (High-PHY layers) based on a lower layer functional split. The 0-RU 2316 is a logical node hosting lower PHY layer entities/elements (Low-PHY layer) (e.g., FFT/iFFT, PRACH extraction, etc.) and RF processing elements based on a lower layer functional split. Virtualization of 0-RU 2316 is FFS. The O-CU-CP 2321 is a logical node hosting the RRC and the control plane (CP) part of the PDCP protocol. The O O-CU-UP 2322 is a logical node hosting the user plane part of the PDCP protocol and the SDAP protocol.

An E2 interface terminates at a plurality of E2 nodes. The E2 nodes are logical nodes/entities that terminate the E2 interface. For NR/5G access, the E2 nodes include the O-CU- CP 2321, O-CU-UP 2322, 0-DU 2315, or any combination of elements as defined in [015], For E-UTRA access the E2 nodes include the O-e/gNB 2310. As shown in Figure 23, the E2 interface also connects the O-e/gNB 2310 to the Near-RT RIC 2314. The protocols over E2 interface are based exclusively on Control Plane (CP) protocols. The E2 functions are grouped into the following categories: (a) near-RT RIC 2314 services (REPORT, INSERT, CONTROL and POLICY, as described in [015]); and (b) near-RT RIC 2314 support functions, which include E2 Interface Management (E2 Setup, E2 Reset, Reporting of General Error Situations, etc.) and Near- RT RIC Service Update (e.g., capability exchange related to the list of E2 Node functions exposed over E2).

Figure 23 shows the Uu interface between a UE 2301 and O-e/gNB 2310 as well as between the UE 2301 and O-RAN components. The Uu interface is a 3GPP defined interface (see e.g., sections 5.2 and 5.3 of [007]), which includes a complete protocol stack from LI to L3 and terminates in the NG-RAN or E-UTRAN. The O-e/gNB 2310 is an LTE eNB [004], a 5G gNB or ng-eNB [006] that supports the E2 interface. The O-e/gNB 2310 may be the same or similar as AN 1908 and/or AN 2004 discussed previously. The UE 2301 may correspond to UE 1902 and/or UE 2002 discussed with respect to Figures 19 and 20, and/or the like. There may be multiple UEs 2301 and/or multiple O-e/gNB 2310, each of which may be connected to one another the via respective Uu interfaces. Although not shown in Figure 23, the O-e/gNB 2310 supports O- DU 2315 and 0-RU 2316 functions with an Open Fronthaul interface between them.

The Open Fronthaul (OF) interface(s) is/are between 0-DU 2315 and 0-RU 2316 functions [016] [017], The OF interface(s) includes the Control User Synchronization (CUS) Plane and Management (M) Plane. Figures 22 and 23 also show that the 0-RU 2316 terminates the OF M-Plane interface towards the 0-DU 2315 and optionally towards the SMO 2302 as specified in [016], The 0-RU 2316 terminates the OF CUS-Plane interface towards the 0-DU 2315 and the SMO 2302.

The Fl-c interface connects the O-CU-CP 2321 with the 0-DU 2315. As defined by 3GPP, the Fl-c interface is between the gNB-CU-CP and gNB-DU nodes [007] [O10], However, for purposes of O-RAN, the Fl-c interface is adopted between the O-CU-CP 2321 with the 0-DU 2315 functions while reusing the principles and protocol stack defined by 3GPP and the definition of interoperability profile specifications.

The Fl-u interface connects the O-CU-UP 2322 with the 0-DU 2315. As defined by 3GPP, the Fl-u interface is between the gNB-CU-UP and gNB-DU nodes [007] [O10], However, for purposes of O-RAN, the Fl-u interface is adopted between the O-CU-UP 2322 with the 0-DU 2315 functions while reusing the principles and protocol stack defined by 3GPP and the definition of interoperability profile specifications.

The NG-c interface is defined by 3GPP as an interface between the gNB-CU-CP and the AMF in the 5GC [006], The NG-c is also referred as the N2 interface (see [006]). The NG-u interface is defined by 3GPP, as an interface between the gNB-CU-UP and the UPF in the 5GC [006], The NG-u interface is referred as the N3 interface (see [006]). In O-RAN, NG-c and NG- u protocol stacks defined by 3GPP are reused and may be adapted for O-RAN purposes.

The X2-c interface is defined in 3GPP for transmitting control plane information between eNBs or between eNB and en-gNB in EN-DC. The X2-u interface is defined in 3GPP for transmitting user plane information between eNBs or between eNB and en-gNB in EN-DC (see e.g., [005], [006]). In O-RAN, X2-c and X2-u protocol stacks defined by 3GPP are reused and may be adapted for O-RAN purposes

The Xn-c interface is defined in 3GPP for transmitting control plane information between gNBs, ng-eNBs, or between an ng-eNB and gNB. The Xn-u interface is defined in 3GPP for transmitting user plane information between gNBs, ng-eNBs, or between ng-eNB and gNB (see e.g., [006], [008]). In O-RAN, Xn-c and Xn-u protocol stacks defined by 3 GPP are reused and may be adapted for O-RAN purposes

The El interface is defined by 3GPP as being an interface between the gNB-CU-CP (e.g., gNB-CU-CP 3728) and gNB-CU-UP (see e.g., [007], [009]). In O-RAN, El protocol stacks defined by 3GPP are reused and adapted as being an interface between the O-CU-CP 2321 and the O-CU-UP 2322 functions.

The O-RAN Non-Real Time (RT) RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) 2312 is a logical function within the SMO framework 2202, 2302 that enables non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources; A [/machine learning (ML) workflow(s) including model training, inferences, and updates; and policy -based guidance of applications/features in the Near-RT RIC 2314.

The O-RAN near-RT RIC 2314 is a logical function that enables near-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources via fine-grained data collection and actions over the E2 interface. The near-RT RIC 2314 may include one or more AI/ML workflows including model training, inferences, and updates.

The non-RT RIC 2312 can be an ML training host to host the training of one or more ML models. ML training can be performed offline using data collected from the RIC, 0-DU 2315 and 0-RU 2316. For supervised learning, non-RT RIC 2312 is part of the SMO 2302, and the ML training host and/or ML model host/actor can be part of the non-RT RIC 2312 and/or the near-RT RIC 2314. For unsupervised learning, the ML training host and ML model host/actor can be part of the non-RT RIC 2312 and/or the near-RT RIC 2314. For reinforcement learning, the ML training host and ML model host/actor may be co-located as part of the non-RT RIC 2312 and/or the near-RT RIC 2314. In some implementations, the non-RT RIC 2312 may request or trigger ML model training in the training hosts regardless of where the model is deployed and executed. ML models may be trained and not currently deployed.

In some implementations, the non-RT RIC 2312 provides a query-able catalog for an ML designer/developer to publish/install trained ML models (e.g., executable software components). In these implementations, the non-RT RIC 2312 may provide discovery mechanism if a particular ML model can be executed in a target ML inference host (MF), and what number and type of ML models can be executed in the MF. For example, there may be three types of ML catalogs made disoverable by the non-RT RIC 2312: a design-time catalog (e.g., residing outside the non-RT RIC 2312 and hosted by some other ML platform(s)), a training/deployment-time catalog (e.g., residing inside the non-RT RIC 2312), and a run-time catalog (e.g., residing inside the non-RT RIC 2312). The non-RT RIC 2312 supports necessary capabilities for ML model inference in support of ML assisted solutions running in the non-RT RIC 2312 or some other ML inference host. These capabilities enable executable software to be installed such as VMs, containers, etc. The non-RT RIC 2312 may also include and/or operate one or more ML engines, which are packaged software executable libraries that provide methods, routines, data types, etc., used to run ML models. The non-RT RIC 2312 may also implement policies to switch and activate ML model instances under different operating conditions.

The non-RT RIC 232 is be able to access feedback data (e.g., FM and PM statistics) over the 01 interface on ML model performance and perform necessary evaluations. If the ML model fails during runtime, an alarm can be generated as feedback to the non-RT RIC 2312. How well the ML model is performing in terms of prediction accuracy or other operating statistics it produces can also be sent to the non-RT RIC 2312 over 01. The non-RT RIC 2312 can also scale ML model instances running in a target MF over the 01 interface by observing resource utilization in MF. The environment where the ML model instance is running (e.g., the MF) monitors resource utilization of the running ML model. This can be done, for example, using an ORAN-SC component called ResourceMonitor in the near-RT RIC 2314 and/or in the non-RT RIC 2312, which continuously monitors resource utilization. If resources are low or fall below a certain threshold, the runtime environment in the near-RT RIC 2314 and/or the non-RT RIC 2312 provides a scaling mechanism to add more ML instances. The scaling mechanism may include a scaling factor such as an number, percentage, and/or other like data used to scale up/down the number of ML instances. ML model instances running in the target ML inference hosts may be automatically scaled by observing resource utilization in the MF. For example, the Kubernetes® (K8s) runtime environment typically provides an auto-scaling feature.

The Al interface is between the non-RT RIC 2312 (within or outside the SMO 2302) and the near-RT RIC 2314. The Al interface supports three types of services as defined in [014], including a Policy Management Service, an Enrichment Information Service, and ML Model Management Service. Al policies have the following characteristics compared to persistent configuration [014]: Al policies are not critical to traffic; Al policies have temporary validity; Al policies may handle individual UE or dynamically defined groups of UEs; Al policies act within and take precedence over the configuration; and Al policies are non-persistent, e.g., do not survive a restart of the near-RT RIC. REFERENCES

[004] 3GPP TS 36.401 vl5.1.0 (2019-01-09).

[005] 3GPP TS 36.420 vl5.2.0 (2020-01-09).

[006] 3GPP TS 38.300 vl6.0.0 (2020-01-08).

[007] 3GPP TS 38.401 vl6.0.0 (2020-01-09).

[008] 3GPP TS 38.420 vl5.2.0 (2019-01-08).

[009] 3GPP TS 38.460 vl6.0.0 (2020-01-09).

[010] 3GPP TS 38.470 vl6.0.0 (2020-01-09).

[012] O-RAN Alliance Working Group 1, O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Architecture Specification, version 2.0 (Dec 2019) (“0-RAN-WG1.0AM-Architecture-v02.00”).

[013] O-RAN Alliance Working Group 1, O-RAN Operations and Maintenance Interface Specification, version 2.0 (Dec 2019) (“0-RAN-WG1.01-Interface-v02.00”).

[014] O-RAN Alliance Working Group 2, O-RAN Al interface: General Aspects and Principles Specification, version 1.0 (Oct 2019) (“ORAN-WG2.Al.GA&P-v01.00”).

[015] O-RAN Alliance Working Group 3, Near-Real-time RAN Intelligent Controller Architecture & E2 General Aspects and Principles (“ORAN-WG3.E2GAP.0-v0.1”).

[016] O-RAN Alliance Working Group 4, O-RAN Fronthaul Management Plane Specification, version 2.0 (July 2019) (“ORAN-WG4.MP.0-v02.00.00”).

[017] O-RAN Alliance Working Group 4, O-RAN Fronthaul Control, User and Synchronization Plane Specification, version 2.0 (July 2019) (“ORAN-WG4.CUS.0-v02.00”).

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

EXAMPLES

Some non-limiting examples of various embodiments are provided below.

Example Al includes one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors cause a data policy administration function (DPAF) of a non-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC) to: receive, from a service consumer, a create request to create one or more data policies to be managed by the DPAF, wherein the service consumer includes one or more other non-RT RIC functions; and create and manage the one or more data policies based on the create request.

Example A2 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the one or more data policies include one or more of: a data delivery policy; a data collection policy; a data retention policy; a data sharing policy; a data processing policy; or a data disposal policy.

Example A3 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein to manage the one or more data policies includes to perform one or more of an update operation, a delete operation, an update notify operation, or a query operation associated with the one or more data policies.

Example A4 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the one or more other non-RT RIC functions of the service consumer include a data repository and a data catalog.

Example A5 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the create request is a HTTP POST request with a policy object in the message body, and wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the DPAF to: create a new policy object with a new policy identifier (ID); and send an HTTP response to the service consumer with a created new policy object in the HTTP response.

Example A6 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the DPAF to: determine occurrence of a trigger; update or terminate a first data policy of the one or more data policies based on the trigger; and notify the service consumer that the first data policy has been updated or terminated.

Example A7 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the instructions are further to cause the DPAF to: receive a HTTP GET request from a service consumer to query a status of a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP GET request includes a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy, an empty message body, and a uniform resource identifier (URI) that indicates a status resource identifier; and send an HTTP response to the service consumer, wherein the HTTP response includes a policy status object for the first data policy in a message body of the HTTP response.

Example A8 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al, wherein the instructions are further to cause the DPAF to: receive a HTTP PUT request from a service consumer to update a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP PUT request includes a modified data policy object and a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy; determine whether to update the first data policy based on the HTTP PUT request; and send an HTTP response to indicate whether the first data policy is updated.

Example A9 includes the one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further to cause the DPAF to: receive a HTTP DELETE request from a service consumer to delete a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP DELETE request includes a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy; determine whether to delete the first data policy based on the HTTP DELETE request; if it is determined to delete the first data policy, send an HTTP 204 No Content message to the service consumer, wherein the HTTP 204 No Content message includes an empty message body; and if it is determined not to delete the first data policy, send an error code to the service consumer to indicate that the first data policy will not be deleted.

Example A10 includes the one or more NTCRM of any one of examples A1-A9, wherein the one or more data policies are associated with one or more non-RT RIC applications (rApps).

Example Al 1 includes the one or more NTCRM of example A10, wherein the one or more rApps include one or more data producer rApps and one or more data consumer rApps.

Example A12 includes the one or more NTCRM of example Al l, wherein the one or more data policies include at least one of a data retention policy, a data disposal policy, or a data processing policy that is created or modified by the DPAF based on inputs from the data producer rApp and the data consumer rApp.

Example Al 3 includes an apparatus of a non-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC), the apparatus comprising: a data repository and a data catalog to provide data services for one or more non-RT RIC applications (rApps); and a data policy administration function (DPAF) communicatively coupled to the data repository via an interface, wherein the DPAF is to manage one or more data policies for the one or more rApps.

Example A14 includes the apparatus of example A13, wherein the one or more data policies include one or more of: a data delivery policy; a data collection policy; a data retention policy; a data sharing policy; a data processing policy; or a data disposal policy.

Example A15 includes the apparatus of example A13, wherein to manage the one or more data policies includes to perform one or more of a create operation, an update operation, a delete operation, an update notify operation, or a query operation associated with the one or more data policies.

Example A16 includes the apparatus of example A13, wherein the DPAF is to: determine occurrence of a trigger; update or terminate a first data policy of the one or more data policies based on the trigger; and notify the service consumer that the first data policy has been updated or terminated. Example Al 7 includes the apparatus of example Al 6, wherein the trigger includes one or more of a conflict among existing data policies, or a change in an operator solution or configuration.

Example A18 includes the apparatus of example A13, wherein the non-RT RIC is to: receive a HTTP GET request from a service consumer to query a status of a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP GET request includes a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy, an empty message body, and a uniform resource identifier (URI) that indicates a status resource identifier; and send an HTTP response to the service consumer, wherein the HTTP response includes a policy status object for the first data policy in a message body of the HTTP response.

Example A19 includes the apparatus of example A13, wherein the non-RT RIC is to receive a subscription request from a data consumer rApp of the one or more rApps, and wherein the DPAF is to create or modify a first data policy of the one or more data policies based on the subscription request.

Example A20 includes the apparatus of example A13, wherein the non-RT RIC is to receive a registration request from a data producer rApp of the one or more rApps, and wherein the DPAF is to create or modify a data sharing policy of the one or more data policies based on the registration request.

Example A21 includes the apparatus of any one of examples Al 3 to A20, wherein the one or more rApps include one or more data producer rApps and one or more data consumer rApps.

Example A22 includes the apparatus of example A21, wherein the DPAF is to receive respective inputs from the data producer rApp and the data consumer rApp, and create or modify a data retention policy, a data disposal policy, or a data processing policy of the one or more data policies based on the inputs.

Example Bl may include a data policy administration function to manage various data policies in the Non-RT RIC framework. In one embodiment, one or more data policies are managed by DPAF, including one or more of:

- Data delivery policy;

- Data collection policy;

- Data retention policy;

- Data sharing policy;

- Data processing policy; and/or

- Data disposal policy. Example B2 may include Rdpaf XxxPolicy Admin services for respective types of data policies and they support service operations (“Xxx” can be replaced by “Delivery”, “Collection”, “Retention”, “Sharing”, “Processing”, and “Disposal”. Same note applies to the following examples)

- Create operation (create a data policy)

- Update operation (update a data policy)

- Delete operation (delete a data policy)

- Update notify operation (notify the modification or termination of a data policy)

- Query operation (query a data policy or the status of a data policy

Example B3 may include service consumers of DPAF services include data repository, data catalog, and other Non-RT RIC framework functions.

Example B4 may include service consumer invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Create service operation to establish a data policy. It sends the HTTP POST request to DPAF with a XxxPolicyObject in the message body. DPAF creates a new XxxPolicyObject with a new policy id (xxxPolicyld). It sends HTTP “201 created” response back to the service consumer with the created XxxPolicyObject in the message body.

Example B5 may include service consumer invokes the

Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Update service operation to update a data policy. It sends the HTTP PUT request to DPAF with the policy id (xxxPolicyld) and the updated XxxPolicyObject in the message body. DPAF sends HTTP “200 OK” response back to the service consumer with updated XxxPolicyObject in the message body.

Example B6 may include service consumer invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Delete service operation to terminate a data policy. It sends the HTTP DELETE request to DPAF with the policy id (xxxPolicyld) and an empty message body. DPAF sends HTTP “204 no content” response back to the service consumer with empty message body.

Example B7 may include service consumer invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Query service operation to query a data policy. It sends the HTTP GET request to DPAF with the policy id (xxxPolicyld) and empty message body. DPAF sends HTTP “200 OK” response back to the service consumer with XxxPolicyObject in the message body.

Example B8 may include service consumer invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Query service operation to query the status of a data policy. It sends the HTTP GET request to DPAF with the policy id (xxxPolicyld) and empty message body. The URI indicate “status” resource identifier (. . ./{xxxPolicyldJ/status). DPAF sends HTTP “200 OK” response back to the service consumer with the policy status object XxxPolicy StatusObject in the message body. Example B9 may include DPAF invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin UpdateNotify service operation to notify the service consumer about the modification of a data policy. It sends the HTTP POST request to service consumer specified notificationUri(/update) with updated XxxPolicyObject in the message body. The service consumer sends HTTP “204 no content” response back to DPAF with empty message body.

Example B10 may include DPAF invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin UpdateNotify service operation to notify the service consumer about the termination of a data policy. It sends the HTTP POST request to service consumer specified notificationUri(/status) with the policy status object XxxPolicyStatusObject in the message body. The status of the data policy is set to “INVALID”. Optionally, the reason for the termination can be included in XxxPolicyStatusObject. The service consumer sends HTTP “204 no content” response back to DPAF with empty message body. The service invokes the Rdpaf XxxPolicyAdmin Delete service operation to delete the data policy as described in Example 6.

Example Bl 1 may include data delivery policy is established based on a data consumer rApp’s subscription request. A data delivery policy is terminated once the data consumer rApp un-subscribe the data. A data delivery policy is modified once the data consumer rApp updates the subscription.

Example B12 may include data collection policy is established or modified if a subscription request from a data consumer rApp is received in the Non-RT RIC framework. If the subscribed data is from a data producer rApp which already have an associated data collection policy for the requested data, then DPAF can modify the existing data collection policy. Otherwise, DPAF can establish a new data collection policy.

Example B13 may include data collection policy is terminated or modified if an unsubscription request from a data consumer rApp is received in the Non-RT RIC framework. If the un-subscribed data is from a data producer rApp whose data collection policy serves multiple data consumer rApps, then DPAF can modify the existing data collection policy. Otherwise, DPAF can terminate data collection policy.

Example B 14 may include data sharing policy is established based on a data producer rApp’s registration request. A data sharing policy is terminated once the data producer rApp deregister the data generation. A data sharing policy is modified once the data producer rApp update its registration.

Example B15 may include data retention/disposal/processing policy is established or modified after a subscription request is received, and it is based on inputs from both data producer and consumer rApps. A data retention/disposal/processing policy is terminated or modified after an un-subscription request from a data consumer rApp or a de-registration request from a data producer rApp

Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z03 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or any other method or process described herein.

Example Z04 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z05 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or portions thereof.

Example Z06 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or portions or parts thereof.

Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl- B15, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl -Bl 5, or portions thereof. Example Z11 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples A1-A22, Bl- B15, or portions thereof.

Example Z12 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example Z15 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Abbreviations

Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 vl6.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

3 GPP Third AP Application BRAS Broadband Generation 35 Protocol, Antenna Remote Access

Partnership Port, Access Point 70 Server Project API Application BSS Business 4G Fourth Programming Interface Support System Generation APN Access Point BS Base Station 5G Fifth 40 Name BSR Buffer Status Generation ARP Allocation and 75 Report 5GC 5G Core Retention Priority BW Bandwidth network ARQ Automatic BWP Bandwidth Part AC Repeat Request C-RNTI Cell

Application 45 AS Access Stratum Radio Network Client ASP 80 Temporary ACK Application Service Identity

Acknowledgem Provider CA Carrier ent Aggregation, ACID 50 ASN.l Abstract Syntax Certification

Application Notation One 85 Authority Client Identification AUSF Authentication CAPEX CAPital AF Application Server Function Expenditure Function AWGN Additive CBRA Contention

AM Acknowledged 55 White Gaussian Based Random Mode Noise 90 Access

AMBRAggregate BAP Backhaul CC Component Maximum Bit Rate Adaptation Protocol Carrier, Country AMF Access and BCH Broadcast Code, Cryptographic

Mobility 60 Channel Checksum

Management BER Bit Error Ratio 95 CCA Clear Channel Function BFD Beam Assessment AN Access Failure Detection CCE Control Network BLER Block Error Channel Element ANR Automatic 65 Rate CCCH Common

Neighbour Relation BPSK Binary Phase 100 Control Channel Shift Keying CE Coverage

Enhancement CDM Content COTS Commercial C-RNTI Cell Delivery Network Off-The-Shelf RNTI CDMA Code- CP Control Plane, CS Circuit Division Multiple Cyclic Prefix, Switched Access 40 Connection 75 CSAR Cloud Service

CFRA Contention Free Point Archive Random Access CPD Connection CSI Channel-State CG Cell Group Point Descriptor Information CGF Charging CPE Customer CSI-IM CSI

Gateway Function 45 Premise 80 Interference CHF Charging Equipment Measurement

Function CPICHCommon Pilot CSI-RS CSI

CI Cell Identity Channel Reference Signal CID Cell-ID (e g., CQI Channel CSI-RSRP CSI positioning method) 50 Quality Indicator 85 reference signal CIM Common CPU CSI processing received power Information Model unit, Central CSI-RSRQ CSI CIR Carrier to Processing Unit reference signal Interference Ratio C/R received quality CK Cipher Key 55 Command/Resp 90 CSI-SINR CSI CM Connection onse field bit signal-to-noise and Management, CRAN Cloud Radio interference

Conditional Access ratio Mandatory Network, Cloud CSMA Carrier Sense CMAS Commercial 60 RAN 95 Multiple Access Mobile Alert Service CRB Common CSMA/CA CSMA CMD Command Resource Block with collision CMS Cloud CRC Cyclic avoidance Management System Redundancy Check CSS Common CO Conditional 65 CRI Channel -State 100 Search Space, CellOptional Information specific Search CoMP Coordinated Resource Space Multi-Point Indicator, CSI-RS CTF Charging CORESET Control Resource Trigger Function Resource Set 70 Indicator 105 CTS Clear-to-Send CW Codeword 35 DSL Domain ECSP Edge

CWS Contention Specific Language. Computing Service

Window Size Digital 70 Provider

D2D Device-to- Subscriber Line EDN Edge

Device DSLAM DSL Data Network

DC Dual 40 Access Multiplexer EEC Edge

Connectivity, Direct DwPTS Enabler Client Current Downlink Pilot 75 EECID Edge

DCI Downlink Time Slot Enabler Client

Control E-LAN Ethernet Identification

Information 45 Local Area Network EES Edge

DF Deployment E2E End-to-End Enabler Server

Flavour ECCA extended clear 80 EESID Edge

DL Downlink channel Enabler Server

DMTF Distributed assessment, Identification

Management Task 50 extended CCA EHE Edge Force ECCE Enhanced Hosting Environment

DPDK Data Plane Control Channel 85 EGMF Exposure

Development Kit Element, Governance

DM-RS, DMRS Enhanced CCE Management

Demodulation 55 ED Energy Function

Reference Signal Detection EGPRS DN Data network EDGE Enhanced 90 Enhanced DNN Data Network Datarates for GSM GPRS Name Evolution EIR Equipment

DNAI Data Network 60 (GSM Evolution) Identity Register Access Identifier EAS Edge eLAA enhanced

Application Server 95 Licensed Assisted

DRB Data Radio EASID Edge Access,

Bearer Application Server enhanced LAA

DRS Discovery 65 Identification EM Element

Reference Signal ECS Edge Manager

DRX Discontinuous Configuration Server 100 eMBB Enhanced Reception Mobile

Broadband EMS Element 35 E-UTRA Evolved FCCH Frequency

Management System UTRA 70 Correction CHannel eNB evolved NodeB, E-UTRAN Evolved FDD Frequency E-UTRAN Node B UTRAN Division Duplex

EN-DC E- EV2X Enhanced V2X FDM Frequency

UTRA-NR Dual 40 F1AP Fl Application Division

Connectivity Protocol 75 Multiplex EPC Evolved Packet Fl-C Fl Control FDM A Frequency Core plane interface Division Multiple

EPDCCH Fl-U Fl User plane Access enhanced 45 interface FE Front End

PDCCH, enhanced FACCH Fast 80 FEC Forward Error Physical Associated Control Correction

Downlink Control CHannel FFS For Further

Cannel FACCH/F Fast Study

EPRE Energy per 50 Associated Control FFT Fast Fourier resource element Channel/Full 85 Transformation

EPS Evolved Packet rate feLAA further System FACCH/H Fast enhanced Licensed

EREG enhanced REG, Associated Control Assisted enhanced resource 55 Channel/Half Access, further element groups rate 90 enhanced LAA ETSI European FACH Forward Access FN Frame Number

Telecommunica Channel FPGA Field- tions Standards FAUSCH Fast Programmable Gate Institute 60 Uplink Signalling Array

ETWS Earthquake and Channel 95 FR Frequency

Tsunami Warning FB Functional Range

System Block FQDN Fully eUICC embedded FBI Feedback Qualified Domain UICC, embedded 65 Information Name

Universal FCC Federal 100 G-RNTI GERAN Integrated Circuit Communications Radio Network

Card Commission Temporary

Identity GERAN GSM Global System 70 HSDPA High

GSM EDGE for Mobile Speed Downlink RAN, GSM EDGE Communication Packet Access

Radio Access s, Groupe Special HSN Hopping

Network 40 Mobile Sequence Number

GGSN Gateway GPRS GTP GPRS 75 HSPA High Speed Support Node Tunneling Protocol Packet Access GLONASS GTP-UGPRS HSS Home

GLObal'naya Tunnelling Protocol Subscriber Server

NAvigatsionnay 45 for User Plane HSUPA High a Sputnikovaya GTS Go To Sleep 80 Speed Uplink Packet Si sterna (Engl.: Signal (related Access Global Navigation to WUS) HTTP Hyper Text

Satellite GUMMEI Globally Transfer Protocol

System) 50 Unique MME HTTPS Hyper gNB Next Identifier 85 Text Transfer Protocol Generation NodeB GUTI Globally Secure (https is gNB-CU gNB- Unique Temporary http/ 1.1 over centralized unit, Next UE Identity SSL, i.e. port 443)

Generation 55 HARQ Hybrid ARQ, I-Block

NodeB Hybrid 90 Information centralized unit Automatic Block gNB-DU gNB- Repeat Request ICCID Integrated distributed unit, Next HANDO Handover Circuit Card

Generation 60 HFN HyperFrame Identification

NodeB Number 95 IAB Integrated distributed unit HHO Hard Handover Access and

GNSS Global HLR Home Location Backhaul Navigation Satellite Register ICIC Inter-Cell

System 65 HN Home Network Interference

GPRS General Packet HO Handover 100 Coordination

Radio Service HPLMN Home ID Identity,

GPSI Generic Public Land Mobile identifier

Public Subscription Network

Identifier IDFT Inverse Discrete 35 IMPI IP Multimedia ISO International Fourier Private Identity 70 Organisation for

Transform IMPU IP Multimedia Standardisation IE Information PUblic identity ISP Internet Service element IMS IP Multimedia Provider IBE In-Band 40 Subsystem IWF Interworking- Emission IMSI International 75 Function IEEE Institute of Mobile I-WLAN Electrical and Subscriber Interworking

Electronics Identity WLAN Engineers 45 loT Internet of Constraint IEI Information Things 80 length of the Element IP Internet convolutional

Identifier Protocol code, USIM IEIDL Information Ipsec IP Security, Individual key Element 50 Internet Protocol kB Kilobyte (1000

Identifier Data Security 85 bytes) Length IP-CAN IP- kbps kilo-bits per IETF Internet Connectivity Access second Engineering Task Network Kc Ciphering key Force 55 IP-M IP Multicast Ki Individual

IF Infrastructure IPv4 Internet 90 subscriber

IM Interference Protocol Version 4 authentication

Measurement, IPv6 Internet key

Intermodulation Protocol Version 6 KPI Key , IP Multimedia 60 IR Infrared Performance Indicator IMG IMS IS In Sync 95 KQI Key Quality Credentials IRP Integration Indicator IMEI International Reference Point KSI Key Set Mobile ISDN Integrated Identifier

Equipment 65 Services Digital ksps kilo-symbols Identity Network 100 per second IMGI International ISIM IM Services KVM Kernel Virtual mobile group identity Identity Module Machine LI Layer 1 35 LTE Long Term 70 Broadcast and

(physical layer) Evolution Multicast

Ll-RSRP Layer 1 LWA LTE-WLAN Service reference signal aggregation MBSFN received power LWIP LTE/WLAN Multimedia

L2 Layer 2 (data 40 Radio Level 75 Broadcast link layer) Integration with multicast

L3 Layer 3 IPsec Tunnel service Single

(network layer) LTE Long Term Frequency

LAA Licensed Evolution Network

Assisted Access 45 M2M Machine-to- 80 MCC Mobile Country

LAN Local Area Machine Code

Network MAC Medium Access MCG Master Cell

LADN Local Control Group

Area Data Network (protocol MCOT Maximum

LBT Listen Before 50 layering context) 85 Channel

Talk MAC Message Occupancy

LCM LifeCycle authentication code Time

Management (security/ encrypti on MCS Modulation and

LCR Low Chip Rate context) coding scheme

LCS Location 55 MAC-A MAC 90 MD AF Management

Services used for Data Analytics

LCID Logical authentication Function

Channel ID and key MD AS Management

LI Layer Indicator agreement Data Analytics

LLC Logical Link 60 (TSG T WG3 context) 95 Service

Control, Low Layer MAC -IMAC used for MDT Minimization of

Compatibility data integrity of Drive Tests

LPLMN Local signalling messages ME Mobile

PLMN (TSG T WG3 context) Equipment

LPP LTE 65 MANO 100 MeNB master eNB

Positioning Protocol Management MER Message Error

LSB Least and Orchestration Ratio

Significant Bit MBMS MGL Measurement

Multimedia Gap Length MGRP Measurement 35 Access Communication Gap Repetition CHannel 70 s Period MPUSCH MTC MU-MIMO Multi

MIB Master Physical Uplink Shared User MIMO Information Block, Channel MWUS MTC Management 40 MPLS MultiProtocol wake-up signal, MTC

Information Base Label Switching 75 WUS MIMO Multiple Input MS Mobile Station NACK Negative Multiple Output MSB Most Acknowledgement MLC Mobile Significant Bit NAI Network Location Centre 45 MSC Mobile Access Identifier MM Mobility Switching Centre 80 NAS Non-Access Management MSI Minimum Stratum, Non- Access MME Mobility System Stratum layer Management Entity Information, NCT Network MN Master Node 50 MCH Scheduling Connectivity MNO Mobile Information 85 Topology Network Operator MSID Mobile Station NC-JT NonMO Measurement Identifier coherent Joint

Object, Mobile MSIN Mobile Station Transmission

Originated 55 Identification NEC Network MPBCH MTC Number 90 Capability

Physical Broadcast MSISDN Mobile Exposure CHannel Subscriber ISDN NE-DC NR-E-

MPDCCH MTC Number UTRA Dual Physical Downlink 60 MT Mobile Connectivity Control Terminated, Mobile 95 NEF Network

CHannel Termination Exposure Function

MPDSCH MTC MTC Machine-Type NF Network Physical Downlink Communication Function Shared 65 s NFP Network

CHannel mMTCmassive MTC, 100 Forwarding Path

MPRACH MTC massive NFPD Network Physical Random Machine-Type Forwarding Path

Descriptor NFV Network NPRACH 70 S-NNSAI Single-

Functions Narrowband NSSAI

Virtualization Physical Random NSSF Network Slice

NFVI NFV Access CHannel Selection Function

Infrastructure 40 NPUSCH NW Network

NF VO NFV Narrowband 75 NWU S N arrowb and

Orchestrator Physical Uplink wake-up signal,

NG Next Shared CHannel N arrowb and WU S

Generation, Next Gen NPSS Narrowband NZP Non-Zero

NGEN-DC NG- 45 Primary Power

RAN E-UTRA-NR Synchronization 80 O&M Operation and

Dual Connectivity Signal Maintenance

NM Network NSSS Narrowband ODU2 Optical channel

Manager Secondary Data Unit - type 2

NMS Network 50 Synchronization OFDM Orthogonal

Management System Signal 85 Frequency Division

N-PoP Network Point NR New Radio, Multiplexing of Presence Neighbour Relation OFDMA

NMIB, N-MIB NRF NF Repository Orthogonal

Narrowband MIB 55 Function Frequency Division

NPBCH NRS Narrowband 90 Multiple Access

Narrowband Reference Signal OOB Out-of-band

Physical NS Network OO S Out of

Broadcast Service Sync

CHannel 60 NS A Non- Standalone OPEX OPerating

NPDCCH operation mode 95 EXpense

Narrowband NSD Network OSI Other System

Physical Service Descriptor Information

Downlink NSR Network OSS Operations

Control CHannel 65 Service Record Support System

NPDSCH NSSAINetwork Slice 100 OTA over-the-air

Narrowband Selection PAPR Peak-to-

Physical Assistance Average Power

Downlink Information Ratio

Shared CHannel PAR Peak to PDN Packet Data POC PTT over Average Ratio 35 Network, Public Cellular PBCH Physical Data Network 70 PP, PTP Point-to- Broadcast Channel PDSCH Physical Point PC Power Control, Downlink Shared PPP Point-to-Point Personal Channel Protocol

Computer 40 PDU Protocol Data PRACH Physical PCC Primary Unit 75 RACH Component Carrier, PEI Permanent PRB Physical Primary CC Equipment resource block PCell Primary Cell Identifiers PRG Physical PCI Physical Cell 45 PFD Packet Flow resource block ID, Physical Cell Description 80 group Identity P-GW PDN Gateway ProSe Proximity

PCEF Policy and PHICH Physical Services, Charging hybrid-ARQ indicator Proximity-

Enforcement 50 channel Based Service Function PHY Physical layer 85 PRS Positioning

PCF Policy Control PLMN Public Land Reference Signal Function Mobile Network PRR Packet

PCRF Policy Control PIN Personal Reception Radio and Charging Rules 55 Identification Number PS Packet Services Function PM Performance 90 PSBCH Physical

PDCP Packet Data Measurement Sidelink Broadcast Convergence PMI Precoding Channel

Protocol, Packet Matrix Indicator PSDCH Physical Data Convergence 60 PNF Physical Sidelink Downlink Protocol layer Network Function 95 Channel

PDCCH Physical PNFD Physical PSCCH Physical Downlink Control Network Function Sidelink Control

Channel Descriptor Channel

PDCP Packet Data 65 PNFR Physical PSSCH Physical Convergence Protocol Network Function 100 Sidelink Shared

Record Channel

PSCell Primary SCell PSS Primary RAB Radio Access Link Control

Synchronization 35 Bearer, Random 70 layer

Signal Access Burst RLC AM RLC

PSTN Public Switched RACH Random Access Acknowledged Mode

Telephone Network Channel RLC UM RLC

PT-RS Phase-tracking RADIUS Remote Unacknowledged reference signal 40 Authenti cati on Di al 75 Mode

PTT Push-to-Talk In User Service RLF Radio Link

PUCCH Physical RAN Radio Access Failure

Uplink Control Network RLM Radio Link

Channel RAND RANDom Monitoring

PUSCH Physical 45 number (used for 80 RLM-RS

Uplink Shared authentication) Reference

Channel RAR Random Access Signal for RLM

QAM Quadrature Response RM Registration

Amplitude RAT Radio Access Management

Modulation 50 Technology 85 RMC Reference

QCI QoS class of RAU Routing Area Measurement Channel identifier Update RMSI Remaining

QCL Quasi coRB Resource block, MSI, Remaining location Radio Bearer Minimum

QFI QoS Flow ID, 55 RBG Resource block 90 System

QoS Flow group Information

Identifier REG Resource RN Relay Node

QoS Quality of Element Group RNC Radio Network

Service Rel Release Controller

QPSK Quadrature 60 REQ REQuest 95 RNL Radio Network

(Quaternary) Phase RF Radio Layer

Shift Keying Frequency RNTI Radio Network

QZSS Quasi-Zenith RI Rank Indicator Temporary

Satellite System RIV Resource Identifier

RA-RNTI Random 65 indicator value 100 ROHC RObust Header

Access RNTI RL Radio Link Compression

RLC Radio Link RRC Radio Resource

Control, Radio Control, Radio Resource Control 35 S-RNTI SRNC 70 SCS Subcarrier layer Radio Network Spacing

RRM Radio Resource Temporary SCTP Stream Control

Management Identity Transmission

RS Reference S-TMSI SAE Protocol

Signal 40 Temporary Mobile 75 SDAP Service Data

RSRP Reference Station Adaptation

Signal Received Identifier Protocol,

Power SA Standalone Service Data

RSRQ Reference operation mode Adaptation Signal Received 45 SAE System 80 Protocol layer

Quality Architecture SDL Supplementary

RS SI Received Signal Evolution Downlink Strength SAP Service Access SDNF Structured Data

Indicator Point Storage Network

RSU Road Side Unit 50 SAPD Service Access 85 Function RSTD Reference Point Descriptor SDP Session Signal Time SAPI Service Access Description Protocol difference Point Identifier SDSF Structured Data

RTP Real Time SCC Secondary Storage Function

Protocol 55 Component Carrier, 90 SDU Service Data

RTS Ready-To-Send Secondary CC Unit RTT Round Trip SCell Secondary Cell SEAF Security Time SCEF Service Anchor Function

Rx Reception, Capability Exposure SeNB secondary eNB Receiving, Receiver 60 Function 95 SEPP Security Edge S1AP SI Application SC-FDMA Single Protection Proxy Protocol Carrier Frequency SFI Slot format

Sl-MME SI for Division indication the control plane Multiple Access SFTD Space- Sl-U SI for the user 65 SCG Secondary Cell 100 Frequency Time plane Group Diversity, SFN

S-GW Serving SCM Security and frame timing Gateway Context difference

Management SFN System Frame SoC System on Chip Signal based

Number SON Self-Organizing Reference

SgNB Secondary gNB Network Signal Received

SGSN Serving GPRS SpCell Special Cell Power

Support Node 40 SP-CSI-RNTISemi- 75 SS-RSRQ

S-GW Serving Persistent CSI RNTI Synchronization

Gateway SPS Semi-Persistent Signal based

SI System Scheduling Reference

Information SQN Sequence Signal Received

SI-RNTI System 45 number 80 Quality

Information RNTI SR Scheduling SS-SINR

SIB System Request Synchronization

Information Block SRB Signalling Signal based Signal

SIM Subscriber Radio Bearer to Noise and

Identity Module 50 SRS Sounding 85 Interference Ratio

SIP Session Reference Signal SSS Secondary

Initiated Protocol SS Synchronization Synchronization

SiP System in Signal Signal

Package SSB Synchronization SSSG Search Space

SL Sidelink 55 Signal Block 90 Set Group

SLA Service Level SSID Service Set SSSIF Search Space

Agreement Identifier Set Indicator

SM Session SS/PBCH Block SST Slice/Service

Management SSBRI SS/PBCH Types

SMF Session 60 Block Resource 95 SU-MIMO Single

Management Function Indicator, User MIMO

SMS Short Message Synchronization SUL Supplementary

Service Signal Block Uplink

SMSF SMS Function Resource TA Timing

SMTC SSB-based 65 Indicator 100 Advance, Tracking

Measurement Timing SSC Session and Area

Configuration Service TAC Tracking Area

SN Secondary Continuity Code

Node, Sequence SS-RSRP TAG Timing

Number 70 Synchronization 105 Advance Group TAI TPMI Transmitted UDSF Unstructured

Tracking Area Precoding Matrix Data Storage Network

Identity Indicator Function

TAU Tracking Area TR Technical UICC Universal Update 40 Report 75 Integrated Circuit

TB Transport Block TRP, TRxP Card TBS Transport Block Transmission UL Uplink Size Reception Point UM

TBD To Be Defined TRS Tracking Unacknowledge

TCI Transmission 45 Reference Signal 80 d Mode

Configuration TRx Transceiver UML Unified

Indicator TS Technical Modelling Language

TCP Transmission Specifications, UMTS Universal

Communication Technical Mobile

Protocol 50 Standard 85 Telecommunica

TDD Time Division TTI Transmission tions System

Duplex Time Interval UP User Plane

TDM Time Division Tx Transmission, UPF User Plane Multiplexing Transmitting, Function

TDMATime Division 55 Transmitter 90 URI Uniform

Multiple Access U-RNTI UTRAN Resource Identifier

TE Terminal Radio Network URL Uniform

Equipment Temporary Resource Locator

TEID Tunnel End Identity URLLC Ultra¬

Point Identifier 60 UART Universal 95 Reliable and Low

TFT Traffic Flow Asynchronous Latency

Template Receiver and USB Universal Serial

TMSI Temporary Transmitter Bus

Mobile UCI Uplink Control USIM Universal

Subscriber 65 Information 100 Subscriber Identity

Identity UE User Equipment Module

TNL Transport UDM Unified Data USS UE-specific

Network Layer Management search space

TPC Transmit Power UDP User Datagram Control 70 Protocol UTRA UMTS 35 VoIP Voice-over-IP, Terrestrial Radio Voice-over- Internet Access Protocol

UTRAN VPLMN Visited

Universal Public Land Mobile Terrestrial Radio 40 Network

Access VPN Virtual Private

Network Network

UwPTS Uplink VRB Virtual Pilot Time Slot Resource Block V2I Vehicle-to- 45 WiMAX Infrastruction Worldwide

V2P Vehicle-to- Interoperability Pedestrian for Micro wave

V2V Vehicle-to- Access Vehicle 50 WLANWireless Local

V2X Vehicle-to- Area Network everything WMAN Wireless

VIM Virtualized Metropolitan Area Infrastructure Manager Network VL Virtual Link, 55 WPANWireless VLAN Virtual LAN, Personal Area Network Virtual Local Area X2-C X2-Control Network plane VM Virtual X2-U X2-User plane Machine 60 XML extensible

VNF Virtualized Markup Network Function Language

VNFFG VNF XRES EXpected user

Forwarding Graph RESponse VNFFGD VNF 65 XOR exclusive OR

Forwarding Graph ZC Zadoff-Chu

Descriptor ZP Zero Power VNFMVNF Manager For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computerexecutable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.”

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources.

The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/ systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.

The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content.

The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration .

The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block. The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure.

The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation.

The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA.

The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC.

The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell.

The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC CONNECTED configured with CA/.

The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.

The term “application” may refer to a complete and deployable package, environment to achieve a certain function in an operational environment. The term “AI/ML application” or the like may be an application that contains some AI/ML models and application-level descriptions.

The term “machine learning” or “ML” refers to the use of computer systems implementing algorithms and/or statistical models to perform specific task(s) without using explicit instructions, but instead relying on patterns and inferences. ML algorithms build or estimate mathematical model(s) (referred to as “ML models” or the like) based on sample data (referred to as “training data,” “model training information,” or the like) in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to perform such tasks. Generally, an ML algorithm is a computer program that learns from experience with respect to some task and some performance measure, and an ML model may be any object or data structure created after an ML algorithm is trained with one or more training datasets. After training, an ML model may be used to make predictions on new datasets. Although the term “ML algorithm” refers to different concepts than the term “ML model,” these terms as discussed herein may be used interchangeably for the purposes of the present disclosure.

The term “machine learning model,” “ML model,” or the like may also refer to ML methods and concepts used by an ML-assisted solution. An “ML-assisted solution” is a solution that addresses a specific use case using ML algorithms during operation. ML models include supervised learning (e.g., linear regression, k-nearest neighbor (KNN), descision tree algorithms, support machine vectors, Bayesian algorithm, ensemble algorithms, etc.) unsupervised learning (e.g., K-means clustering, principle component analysis (PCA), etc.), reinforcement learning (e.g., Q-leaming, multi-armed bandit learning, deep RL, etc.), neural networks, and the like. Depending on the implementation a specific ML model could have many sub-models as components and the ML model may train all sub-models together. Separately trained ML models can also be chained together in an ML pipeline during inference. An “ML pipeline” is a set of functionalities, functions, or functional entities specific for an ML-assisted solution; an ML pipeline may include one or several data sources in a data pipeline, a model training pipeline, a model evaluation pipeline, and an actor. The “actor” is an entity that hosts an ML assisted solution using the output of the ML model inference). The term “ML training host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts the training of the model. The term “ML inference host” refers to an entity, such as a network function, that hosts model during inference mode (which includes both the model execution as well as any online learning if applicable). The ML-host informs the actor about the output of the ML algorithm, and the actor takes a decision for an action (an “action” is performed by an actor as a result of the output of an ML assisted solution). The term “model inference information” refers to information used as an input to the ML model for determining inference(s); the data used to train an ML model and the data used to determine inferences may overlap, however, “training data” and “inference data” refer to different concepts.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors cause a data policy administration function (DPAF) of a non-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC) to: receive, from a service consumer, a create request to create one or more data policies to be managed by the DPAF, wherein the service consumer includes one or more other non-RT RIC functions; and create and manage the one or more data policies based on the create request.

2. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the one or more data policies include one or more of: a data delivery policy; a data collection policy; a data retention policy; a data sharing policy; a data processing policy; or a data disposal policy.

3. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein to manage the one or more data policies includes to perform one or more of an update operation, a delete operation, an update notify operation, or a query operation associated with the one or more data policies.

4. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the one or more other non-RT RIC functions of the service consumer include a data repository and a data catalog.

5. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the create request is a HTTP POST request with a policy object in the message body, and wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the DPAF to: create a new policy object with a new policy identifier (ID); and send an HTTP response to the service consumer with a created new policy object in the HTTP response.

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6. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, are further to cause the DPAF to: determine occurrence of a trigger; update or terminate a first data policy of the one or more data policies based on the trigger; and notify the service consumer that the first data policy has been updated or terminated.

7. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further to cause the DPAF to: receive a HTTP GET request from a service consumer to query a status of a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP GET request includes a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy, an empty message body, and a uniform resource identifier (URI) that indicates a status resource identifier; and send an HTTP response to the service consumer, wherein the HTTP response includes a policy status object for the first data policy in a message body of the HTTP response.

8. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further to cause the DPAF to: receive a HTTP PUT request from a service consumer to update a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP PUT request includes a modified data policy object and a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy; determine whether to update the first data policy based on the HTTP PUT request; and send an HTTP response to indicate whether the first data policy is updated.

9. The one or more NTCRM of claim 1, wherein the instructions are further to cause the DPAF to: receive a HTTP DELETE request from a service consumer to delete a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP DELETE request includes a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy; determine whether to delete the first data policy based on the HTTP DELETE request; if it is determined to delete the first data policy, send an HTTP 204 No Content message to the service consumer, wherein the HTTP 204 No Content message includes an empty message body; and if it is determined not to delete the first data policy, send an error code to the service consumer to indicate that the first data policy will not be deleted.

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10. The one or more NTCRM of any one of claims 1-9, wherein the one or more data policies are associated with one or more non-RT RIC applications (rApps).

11. The one or more NTCRM of claim 10, wherein the one or more rApps include one or more data producer rApps and one or more data consumer rApps.

12. The one or more NTCRM of claim 11, wherein the one or more data policies include at least one of a data retention policy, a data disposal policy, or a data processing policy that is created or modified by the DPAF based on inputs from the data producer rApp and the data consumer rApp.

13. An apparatus of a non-real time (RT) radio access network (RAN) intelligent controller (RIC), the apparatus comprising: a data repository and a data catalog to provide data services for one or more non-RT RIC applications (rApps); and a data policy administration function (DPAF) communicatively coupled to the data repository via an interface, wherein the DPAF is to manage one or more data policies for the one or more rApps.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the one or more data policies include one or more of: a data delivery policy; a data collection policy; a data retention policy; a data sharing policy; a data processing policy; or a data disposal policy.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein to manage the one or more data policies includes to perform one or more of a create operation, an update operation, a delete operation, an update notify operation, or a query operation associated with the one or more data policies.

16. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the DPAF is to: determine occurrence of a trigger;

54 update or terminate a first data policy of the one or more data policies based on the trigger; and notify the service consumer that the first data policy has been updated or terminated.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the trigger includes one or more of a conflict among existing data policies, or a change in an operator solution or configuration.

18. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the non-RT RIC is to: receive a HTTP GET request from a service consumer to query a status of a first data policy of the one or more data policies, wherein the HTTP GET request includes a policy identifier (ID) of the first data policy, an empty message body, and a uniform resource identifier (URI) that indicates a status resource identifier; and send an HTTP response to the service consumer, wherein the HTTP response includes a policy status object for the first data policy in a message body of the HTTP response.

19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the non-RT RIC is to receive a subscription request from a data consumer rApp of the one or more rApps, and wherein the DPAF is to create or modify a first data policy of the one or more data policies based on the subscription request.

20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the non-RT RIC is to receive a registration request from a data producer rApp of the one or more rApps, and wherein the DPAF is to create or modify a data sharing policy of the one or more data policies based on the registration request.

21. The apparatus of any one of claims 13 to 20, wherein the one or more rApps include one or more data producer rApps and one or more data consumer rApps.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the DPAF is to receive respective inputs from the data producer rApp and the data consumer rApp, and create or modify a data retention policy, a data disposal policy, or a data processing policy of the one or more data policies based on the inputs.

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