CN116744397A

CN116744397A - Apparatus and method for supporting VPLMN-specific URSP

Info

Publication number: CN116744397A
Application number: CN202310255193.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 单长虹
Original assignee: Intel Corp
Current assignee: Intel Corp
Priority date: 2022-03-11
Filing date: 2023-03-10
Publication date: 2023-09-12

Abstract

The present disclosure provides apparatus and methods for supporting a VPLMN-specific urs p. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes an interface circuit and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit. The processor circuit is to: decoding the urs information received from the VPLMN via the interface circuit to obtain urs rules of the VPLMN; and encoding the urs rule information for transmission to the UE. The URSP rule information includes the URSP rule of the VPLMN and the VPLMN ID of the VPLMN. Other embodiments are also disclosed and claimed.

Description

Apparatus and method for supporting VPLMN-specific URSP

Priority statement

The present application is based on and claims priority to PCT International application No. PCT/CN2022/080274 filed on day 3 and 11 of 2023. The entire contents of this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of wireless communications, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for supporting a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) specific to accessing a public land mobile network (VPLMN).

Background

Mobile communications have evolved significantly from early voice systems to today's highly complex integrated communication platforms. The next generation wireless communication system, fifth generation (5G) or New Radio (NR) will provide information access and data sharing by various terminals and applications whenever and wherever possible. NR is expected to be a unified network/system aimed at meeting distinct and sometimes conflicting performance dimensions and services. Such different multidimensional requirements are driven by different services and applications. In general, NR can evolve based on the third generation partnership project (3 GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) -advanced and other potential new Radio Access Technologies (RATs), enriching people's lives through a better, simple and seamless wireless connection solution. NR can enable everything through a wireless connection and provide fast, rich content and services.

Disclosure of Invention

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) network function via the interface circuit to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); and processing the information in a unified data store (UDR), wherein the information includes a VPLMN ID associated with the VPLMN network function.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs) information received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) via the interface circuit to obtain urs rules of the VPLMN; and encoding the URSP rule information for transmission to the UE, wherein the URSP rule information includes the URSP rule of the VPLMN and a VPLMN ID of the VPLMN.

An aspect of the present disclosure provides an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) via the interface circuit to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); responsive to the AF request being associated with accessing a public land mobile network (VPLMN), checking whether service information has been authorized for the VPLMN; and responding to the NEF with an authorization result.

Drawings

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described, by way of example and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example architecture of a system including a 5GC according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 3 illustrates a network according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 4 illustrates a process for service-specific authorization according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 illustrates a process for service-specific authorization updating in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 illustrates a process for service-specific parameter configuration in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method for supporting VPLMN-specific urs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a method for supporting VPLMN-specific urs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a method for supporting VPLMN-specific urs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network in accordance with various embodiments.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments.

Detailed Description

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of the disclosure to others skilled in the art. However, it will be readily understood by those skilled in the art that many alternative embodiments may be practiced using portions of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternative embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Moreover, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrases "in an embodiment," "in one embodiment," and "in some embodiments" are repeated herein. The phrase generally does not refer to the same embodiment; however, it may refer to the same embodiment. The terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrases "A or B" and "A/B" mean "(A), (B) or (A and B)".

Fig. 1 illustrates an example architecture of a system 100 according to some embodiments of the disclosure. The following description is provided for an example system 100 that operates in conjunction with a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system standard and a 5G or New Radio (NR) system standard provided by a 3GPP Technical Specification (TS). However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G)) systems, institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 protocols (e.g., wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), etc.), and so forth.

As shown in fig. 1, the system 100 may include a UE 101a and a UE 101b (collectively referred to as UE(s) 101 "). As used herein, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may refer to a device having radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communication network. The term "user equipment" or "UE" may be considered synonymous and may be referred to as a client, mobile phone, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio, reconfigurable mobile, etc. Furthermore, the term "user equipment" or "UE" may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device that includes a wireless communication interface. In this example, the UE 101 is shown as a smart phone (e.g., a handheld touch screen mobile computing device connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smart phones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handheld devices, desktop computers, notebook computers, in-Vehicle Infotainment Systems (IVIs), in-vehicle entertainment (ICE) devices, dashboards (Instrument Cluster, ICs), heads-up display (HUD) devices, in-vehicle diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashboard mobile Devices (DME), mobile Data Terminals (MDT), electronic Engine Management Systems (EEMS), electronic/Engine Control Units (ECU), electronic/Engine Control Modules (ECM), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine Management Systems (EMS), or "smart" devices, machine-type communication (MTC) devices, machine-to-machine (M2M), internet of things (IoT) devices, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 101 may include an IoT UE, which may include a network access layer designed for low power IoT applications that utilize short-term UE connections. IoT UEs may utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC to exchange data with MTC servers or devices via PLMNs, proximity-based services (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communications, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The data exchange of M2M or MTC may be a machine initiated data exchange. IoT networks describe interconnected IoT UEs that may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the internet infrastructure) with short-term connections. The IoT UE may execute a background application (e.g., keep-alive message, status update, etc.) to facilitate connection of the IoT network.

UE 101 may be configured to connect (e.g., communicatively couple) with RAN 110. In an embodiment, RAN 110 may be a Next Generation (NG) RAN or a 5G RAN, an evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN) or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN (UMTS terrestrial radio access network) or a GERAN (GSM (global system for Mobile communications or group Sp service Mobile) EDGE (GSM evolution) radio access network). As used herein, the term "NG RAN" or the like may refer to RAN 110 operating in NR or 5G system 100, and the term "E-UTRAN" or the like may refer to RAN 110 operating in LTE or 4G system 100. The UE 101 utilizes connections (or channels) 103 and 104, respectively, each of which includes a physical communication interface or layer (discussed in further detail below). As used herein, the term "channel" may refer to any tangible or intangible transmission medium for transmitting data or a data stream. The term "channel" may be synonymous and/or equivalent to "communication channel," "data communication channel," "transmission channel," "data transmission channel," "access channel," "data access channel," "link," "data link," "carrier," "radio frequency carrier," and/or any other similar term indicating a path or medium through which data is transmitted. In addition, the term "link" may refer to a connection between two devices for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information via a Radio Access Technology (RAT).

In this example, connections 103 and 104 are shown as air interfaces to enable communicative coupling, and may be consistent with cellular communication protocols, such as global system for mobile communications (GSM) protocols, code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network protocols, push-to-talk (PTT) protocols, push-to-cellular PTT (POC) protocols, universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocols, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocols, fifth generation (5G) protocols, new Radio (NR) protocols, and/or any other communication protocols discussed herein. In an embodiment, the UE 101 may exchange communication data directly via the ProSe interface 105. ProSe interface 105 may alternatively be referred to as a Sidelink (SL) interface 105 and may include one or more logical channels including, but not limited to, a physical side link control channel (PSCCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical side link discovery channel (PSDCH), and a physical side link broadcast channel (PSBCH).

The UE 101b is shown configured to access an Access Point (AP) 106 (also referred to as a "WLAN node 106", "WLAN terminal 106", or "WT106", etc.) via a connection 107. Connection 107 may comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where AP 106 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi) router. In this example, the AP 106 is shown connected to the internet and not to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE 101b, RAN 110, and AP 106 may be configured to utilize LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) operation and/or WLAN LTE/WLAN radio level integration (LWIP) operation with IPsec tunneling. The LWA operation may involve the UE 101b in rrc_connected being configured by the RAN node 111 to utilize radio resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operations may involve the UE 101b using WLAN radio resources (e.g., connection 107) to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., internet Protocol (IP) packets) sent over connection 107 via an internet protocol security (IPsec) protocol tunnel. IPsec tunnels may include encapsulating the entire original IP packet and adding a new packet header, protecting the original header of the IP packet.

RAN 110 may include one or more RAN nodes 111a and 111b (collectively referred to as RAN node(s) 111 ") that enable connections 103 and 104. As used herein, the terms "Access Node (AN)", "access point", "RAN node", and the like may describe devices that provide radio baseband functionality for data and/or voice connections between a network and one or more users. These access nodes may be referred to as Base Stations (BS), next generation node BS (gNB), RAN nodes, evolved nodebs (enbs), nodebs, roadside units (RSUs), transmission reception points (TRxP or TRP), and the like, and may include ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations that provide coverage within a geographic area (e.g., cell). As used herein, the term "NG RAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) operating in an NR or 5G system 100, and the term "E-UTRAN node" or the like may refer to a RAN node 111 (e.g., an eNB) operating in an LTE or 4G system 100. According to various embodiments, RAN node 111 may be implemented as one or more dedicated physical devices such as a macrocell base station and/or a Low Power (LP) base station for providing a femtocell, picocell, or other similar cell with smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than the macrocell.

In some embodiments, all or part of RAN node 111 may be implemented as part of a virtual network as one or more software entities running on a server computer, which may be referred to as a Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN) and/or virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, CRAN or vBBUP may implement RAN functional partitioning, such as: PDCP partitioning, wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by CRAN/vbup, while other layer 2 (L2) protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; MAC/PHY partitioning, where RRC, PDCP, RLC and MAC layers are operated by CRAN/vbup and PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 111; or "lower PHY" split, where RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of the PHY layers are operated by CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHY layers are operated by individual RAN nodes 111. The virtualization framework allows freeing up the processor cores of RAN node 111 to execute other virtualized applications. In some implementations, individual RAN node 111 may represent an individual gNB-DU connected to the gNB-CU via an individual F1 interface (not shown in fig. 1). In these implementations, the gNB-DU may include one or more remote radio heads or Radio Front End Modules (RFEM), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server (not shown) located in RAN 110 or by a server pool in a similar manner as CRAN/vbBup. Additionally or alternatively, one or more RAN nodes 111 may be a next generation eNB (NG-eNB), which is a RAN node providing E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol termination to the UE 101, and which is connected to the 5GC via an NG interface.

In a V2X scenario, one or more RAN nodes 111 may be or act as an RSU. The term "roadside unit" or "RSU" may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communication. The RSUs may be implemented in or by suitable RAN nodes or fixed (or relatively stationary) UEs, wherein RSUs implemented in or by UEs may be referred to as "UE-type RSUs", RSUs implemented in or by enbs may be referred to as "eNB-type RSUs", RSUs implemented in or by gnbs may be referred to as "gNB-type RSUs", etc. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with a radio frequency circuit located at the roadside that provides connectivity support for a passing vehicle UE 101 (vUE 101). The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing junction map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may operate over the 5.9GHz Direct Short Range Communication (DSRC) band to provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as avoiding collisions, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate on the cellular V2X frequency band to provide the low-latency communications described above, as well as other cellular communication services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a WiFi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device(s) and some or all of the radio frequency circuitry of the RSU may be enclosed in a weather-proof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired (e.g., ethernet) connection with the traffic signal controller and/or the backhaul network.

Any RAN node 111 may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for the UE 101. In some embodiments, any RAN node 111 may satisfy various logical functions of RAN 110 including, but not limited to, radio Network Controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In embodiments, UE 101 may be configured to communicate with each other or any RAN node 111 over a multicarrier communication channel using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals in accordance with various communication techniques such as, but not limited to, orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for downlink communications) or single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication techniques (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or side-link communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signal may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, the downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from any RAN node 111 to the UE 101, while uplink transmissions may use similar techniques. The grid may be a time-frequency grid, referred to as a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource of each time slot in the downlink. This time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes radio resource allocation intuitive. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in the radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in the resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a plurality of resource blocks that describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block includes a set of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the minimum amount of resources that can be currently allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels transmitted using such resource blocks.

According to various embodiments, UE 101 and RAN node 111 transmit (e.g., send and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as "licensed spectrum" and/or "licensed band") and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as "unlicensed spectrum and/or" unlicensed band "). The licensed spectrum may include channels operating in a frequency range of about 400MHz to about 3.8GHz, while the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5GHz band.

To operate in unlicensed spectrum, the UE 101 and RAN node 111 may operate using Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and/or other eLAA (feLAA) mechanisms. In these implementations, the UE 101 and RAN node 111 may perform one or more known media sensing operations and/or carrier sensing operations to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum are unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmission in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operation may be performed according to a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

LBT is a mechanism in which a device (e.g., UE 101, RAN node 111,112, etc.) senses a medium (e.g., channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a particular channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include a Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) that utilizes at least Energy Detection (ED) to determine whether other signals are present on the channel to determine whether the channel is occupied or clear. The LBT mechanism allows the cellular/LAA network to coexist with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing Radio Frequency (RF) energy over an expected transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predetermined or configured threshold.

In general, incumbent systems in the 5GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technology. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism called carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA). Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a Mobile Station (MS) such as UE 101, AP 106) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmitting. In addition, a back-off mechanism is used to avoid collisions in the case where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits simultaneously. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is randomly drawn within the Contention Window Size (CWS), which increases exponentially when collisions occur and is reset to a minimum when the transmission is successful. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to CSMA/CA for WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmission bursts comprising PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have LAA contention window of variable length between X and Y extended CCA (ECCA) slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values of CWS for the LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (μs); however, the size of the CWS and the Maximum Channel Occupancy Time (MCOT) (e.g., transmission burst) may be based on government regulatory requirements.

LAA mechanisms are established based on Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology of LTE-Advanced (LTE-Advanced) systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a Component Carrier (CC). CCs may have bandwidths of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15, or 20MHz, and may aggregate up to five CCs, thus the maximum aggregate bandwidth is 100MHz. In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, the number of aggregated carriers may be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs may have different bandwidths than other CCs. In a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, the number of CCs and the bandwidth of each CC are typically the same for DL and UL.

The CA also includes a separate serving cell to provide a separate CC. The coverage of the serving cell may be different, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different path losses. A primary serving cell or primary cell (PCell) may provide a primary CC (PCC) for both UL and DL, and may handle Radio Resource Control (RRC) and non-access stratum (NAS) related activities. Other serving cells are referred to as secondary cells (scells), and each SCell may provide a separate secondary CC (SCC) for both UL and DL. SCCs may be added and removed as needed, while changing PCC may require UE 101 to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all scells may operate in unlicensed spectrum (referred to as "LAA scells"), and the LAA scells are assisted by PCell operating in licensed spectrum. When the UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive a UL grant on the configured LAA SCell indicating a different Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) starting location within the same subframe.

A Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher layer signaling to the UE 101. The Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) may carry information on a transport format and resource allocation related to the PDSCH channel, etc. It may also inform the UE 101 about transport format, resource allocation and H-ARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) information related to the uplink shared channel. In general, downlink scheduling (allocation of control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs 101b within a cell) may be performed at any RAN node 111 based on channel quality information fed back from any UE 101. The downlink resource allocation information may be transmitted on a PDCCH for (e.g., allocated to) each UE 101.

The PDCCH may use a Control Channel Element (CCE) to convey control information. The PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruples before being mapped to resource elements, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements called Resource Element Groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of Downlink Control Information (DCI) and channel conditions. Four or more different PDCCH formats with different numbers of CCEs may be defined in LTE (e.g., aggregation level, l=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use a concept of resource allocation for control channel information, which is an extension of the above concept. For example, some embodiments may use an Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more Enhanced Control Channel Elements (ECCEs). Similar to the above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements referred to as Enhanced Resource Element Groups (EREGs). In some cases, ECCEs may have other amounts of EREGs.

RAN nodes 111 may be configured to communicate with each other via interface 112. In embodiments where the system 100 is an LTE system, the interface 112 may be an X2 interface 112. The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more enbs, etc.) connected to EPC 120 and/or two enbs connected to EPC 120. In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide a flow control mechanism for user data packets transmitted over the X2 interface and may be used to communicate information about user data transfer between enbs. For example, X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transmitted from a master eNB (MeNB) to a secondary eNB (SeNB); information about successful sequential transmission of PDCP PDUs from the SeNB to the UE 101 for user data; information of PDCP PDUs not delivered to the UE 101; information about a current minimum required buffer size at the SeNB for data sent to the UE user; etc. X2-C may provide LTE access mobility functions including context transfer from source eNB to target eNB, user plane transfer control, etc.; a load management function; inter-cell interference coordination function.

In embodiments where system 100 is a 5G or NR system, interface 112 may be an Xn interface 112. An Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes 111 (e.g., two or more gnbs, etc.) connected to the 5gc 120, between a RAN node 111 (e.g., a gNB) connected to the 5gc 120 and an eNB, and/or between two enbs connected to the 5gc 120. In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. Xn-U may provide for the unsecured transport of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functions. Xn-C may provide: management and error handling functions; managing the function of the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UEs 101 in CONNECTED mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) includes functionality to manage UE mobility for CONNECTED modes between one or more RAN nodes 111. Mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node 111 to a new (target) serving RAN node 111; and control of user plane tunnels between the old (source) serving RAN node 111 and the new (target) serving RAN node 111. The protocol stack of an Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on top of an Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer above the UDP and/or IP layer(s) for carrying user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol, referred to as the Xn application protocol (Xn-AP), and a transport network layer built on SCTP. SCTP may be located above the IP layer and may provide for the vouching transfer of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transport is used to deliver signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be the same as or similar to the user plane(s) and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein.

RAN110 is shown communicatively coupled to a core network, in this embodiment Core Network (CN) 120.CN 120 may include a plurality of network elements 122 configured to provide various data and telecommunications services to clients/subscribers (e.g., users of UE 101) connected to CN 120 through RAN 110. The term "network element" may describe a physical or virtualized device for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and/or referred to as: networked computers, network hardware, network devices, routers, switches, hubs, bridges, radio network controllers, radio access network devices, gateways, servers, virtualized Network Functions (VNFs), network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI), and/or the like. The components of the CN 120 may be implemented in one physical node or in a separate physical node, including components that read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, network Function Virtualization (NFV) may be used to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions (described in further detail below) via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage media. The logical instantiation of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network slice, and the logical instantiation of a portion of the CN 120 may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architecture and infrastructure can be used to virtualize one or more network functions or be executed by dedicated hardware onto physical resources including industry standard server hardware, storage hardware, or a combination of switches. In other words, NFV systems may be used to perform virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions.

In general, the application server 130 may be an element that provides an application that uses IP bearer resources with a core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Service (PS) domain, LTE PS data service, etc.). The application server 130 may also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., voice over internet protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UE 101 via the EPC 120.

In an embodiment, CN 120 may be 5GC (referred to as "5GC 120" or the like), and RAN 110 may be connected with CN 120 via NG interface 113. In an embodiment, NG interface 113 may be split into two parts: a NG user plane (NG-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and User Plane Functions (UPFs); and an S1 control plane (NG-C) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the AMF.

In an embodiment, the CN 120 may be a 5G CN (referred to as "5gc 120" or the like), while in other embodiments, the CN 120 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). In the case where CN 120 is an EPC (referred to as "EPC 120", etc.), RAN 110 may connect with CN 120 via S1 interface 113. In an embodiment, the S1 interface 13 may be divided into two parts: an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface 114 that carries traffic data between RAN node 111 and a serving gateway (S-GW); and an S1-Mobility Management Entity (MME) interface 115, which is a signaling interface between RAN node 111 and the MME.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example architecture of a system 200 including a 5gc 220, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

The system 200 is shown as comprising: UE 201, which may be the same as or similar to UE 101 previously discussed; (R) AN 210, which may be the same as or similar to RAN 110 discussed previously, and may include RAN node 111 discussed previously; and a Data Network (DN) 203, which may be, for example, an operator service, internet access, or a third party service; and a 5G core network (5 GC or CN) 220.

The 5gc 220 may include an authentication server function (AUSF) 222; an access and mobility management function (AMF) 221; session Management Function (SMF) 224; network Exposure Function (NEF) 223; policy Control Function (PCF) 226; a Network Function (NF) repository function (NRF) 225; unified Data Management (UDM) 227; an Application Function (AF) 228; a User Plane Function (UPF) 202; and a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 229.

The UPF 202 may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session interconnect point to DN 203, and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU sessions. The UPF 202 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, policy rules for user plane parts, lawful interception packets (UP sets), traffic usage reporting, qoS processing (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement) for the user plane, uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS traffic mapping), transmission level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. The UPF 202 may include an uplink classifier for supporting routing traffic flows to the data network. DN 203 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services. DN 203 can include or be similar to application server 130 discussed previously. The UPF 202 can interact with the SMF 224 via an N4 reference point between the SMF 224 and the UPF 202.

The AUSF222 may store data for authentication of the UE 201 and process authentication related functions. The AUSF222 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF222 may communicate with the AMF221 via an N12 reference point between the AMF221 and the AUSF 222; and may communicate with UDM 227 via an N13 reference point between UDM 227 and AUSF 222. In addition, AUSF222 may expose a Nausf service-based interface.

The AMF221 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering the UE 201, etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF related events, as well as access authentication and authorization. AMF221 may be the termination point of the N11 reference point between AMF221 and SMF 224. The AMF221 may provide for the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between the UE 201 and the SMF 224 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF221 may also provide for transmission of Short Message Service (SMS) messages between the UE 201 and an SMS function (SMSF) (not shown in fig. 2). The AMF221 may act as a secure anchor function (SEA), which may include interactions with the AUSF222 and the UE 201, receiving an intermediate key established as a result of the UE 201 authentication procedure. In the case of using USIM-based authentication, the AMF221 may acquire security material from the AUSF 222. The AMF221 may also include a Security Context Management (SCM) function that receives its keys from the SEA for deriving access network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF221 may be AN end point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be AN N2 reference point between (R) AN 211 and AMF 221; the AMF221 may be the termination point of NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection.

The AMF221 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 201 through an N3 interworking function (IWF) interface. The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. The N3IWF may be AN end point for the N2 interface between the (R) AN 210 and the AMF221 of the control plane and may be AN end point for the N3 reference point between the (R) AN 210 and the UPF 202 of the user plane. In this way, AMF221 may process N2 signaling from SMF 224 and AMF221 for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate/decapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunneling, label the N3 user plane packets in the uplink, and perform QoS corresponding to the N3 packet labels, taking into account the QoS requirements associated with such labels received over N2. The N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control plane NAS signaling between the UE 201 and the AMF221 via the N1 reference point between the UE 201 and the AMF221, and relay uplink and downlink user plane packets between the UE 201 and the UPF 202. The N3IWF also provides a mechanism to establish an IPsec tunnel with the UE 201. AMFs 221 may expose interfaces based on Namf services and may be the termination point of the N14 reference point between two AMFs 221 and the N17 reference point between AMFs 221 and a 5G device identification register (5G-EIR) (not shown in FIG. 2).

UE 201 may need to register with AMF221 to receive network services. Registration Management (RM) is used to register or de-register UE 201 with a network (e.g., AMF 221) and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF 221). UE 201 may operate in a RM registration state or a RM deregistration state. In the RM deregistration state, the UE 201 is not registered with the network, and the UE context in the AMF221 does not hold valid location or routing information of the UE 201, so the AMF221 cannot reach the UE 201. In the RM registration state, the UE 201 registers with the network, and the UE context in the AMF221 may hold valid location or routing information of the UE 201 so that the UE 201 may be reached by the AMF 221. In the RM registration state, UE 201 may perform a mobility registration update procedure, perform a periodic registration update procedure triggered by expiration of a periodic update timer (e.g., informing the network that UE 201 is still active), and perform a registration update procedure to update UE capability information or renegotiate protocol parameters with the network, etc.

AMF221 may store one or more RM contexts for UE 201, where each RM context is associated with a particular access to the network. The RM context may be a data structure, database object, etc., that indicates or stores the registration status and periodic update timer, etc., for each access type. The AMF221 may also store a 5GC MM context, which may be the same as or similar to the (E) MM context previously discussed. In various embodiments, AMF221 may store CE mode B restriction parameters for UE 201 in an associated MM context or RM context. The AMF221 may also derive the value from the usage setting parameters of the UE that have been stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RM context) when needed.

Connection Management (CM) may be used to establish and release signaling connections between UE 201 and AMF221 over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between UE 201 and CN 120 and includes AN signaling connection (e.g., RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for non-3 GPP) between the UE and AN Access Network (AN) and AN N2 connection for UE 201 between the AN (e.g., RAN 210) and AMF 221. The UE 201 may operate in one of two CM states: CM IDLE (CM-IDLE) mode or CM CONNECTED (CM-CONNECTED) mode. When the UE 201 is operating in CM-IDLE state/mode, the UE 201 may not have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF221 over the N1 interface and there may be (R) AN 210 signaling connections (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE 201. When the UE 201 is operating in CM-CONNECTED state/mode, the UE 201 may have a NAS signaling connection established with the AMF221 over the N1 interface and there may be (R) AN 210 signaling connections (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE 201. Establishing AN N2 connection between the (R) AN 210 and the AMF221 may cause the UE 201 to transition from the CM-IDLE mode to the CM-CONNECTED mode, and when N2 signaling between the (R) AN 210 and the AMF221 is released, the UE 201 may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode.

The SMF 224 may be responsible for: session Management (SM) (e.g., session establishment, modification, and release, including tunnel maintenance between UPF and AN nodes); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selecting and controlling the UP function; configuring traffic steering at the UPF to route traffic to the correct destination; terminating the interface to the policy control function; control policy enforcement and a portion of QoS; lawful interception (for SM events and interfaces to LI systems); terminating the NAS message of the SM section; downlink data notification; the initiator of the AN specific SM information is sent to the AN through the AMF by N2; the SSC pattern of the session is determined. SM may refer to the management of PDU sessions, which may refer to PDU connectivity services that provide or enable PDU exchanges between the UE 201 and a Data Network (DN) 203 identified by a Data Network Name (DNN). The PDU session may be established at the request of UE 201, modified at the request of UE 201 and 5gc 220, and released using NAS SM signaling exchanged on the N1 reference point between UE 201 and SMF 224 at the request of UE 201 and 5gc 220. Based on the request from the application server, the 5gc 220 can trigger a specific application in the UE 201. In response to receiving the trigger message, the UE 201 may communicate the trigger message (or related portions/information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE 201. The identified application(s) in the UE 201 may establish a PDU session to a particular DNN. The SMF 224 may check whether the UE 201 request meets user subscription information associated with the UE 201. In this regard, the SMF 224 may retrieve and/or request update notifications from the UDM 227 regarding SMF 224-level subscription data.

The SMF 224 may include the following roaming functions: processing a local implementation to apply a QoS SLA (VPLMN); a billing data collection and billing interface (VPLMN); lawful interception (in the interface of the VPLMN and LI system of SM events); interactions with external DNs are supported to transport signaling of PDU session authorization/authentication through the external DNs. An N16 reference point between two SMFs 224 may be included in the system 200 that may be between another SMF 224 in the visited network and an SMF 224 in the home network in the roaming scenario. In addition, the SMF 224 may expose an interface based on the Nsmf service.

NEF223 may provide means for securely exposing services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal exposure/re-exposure, application functions (e.g., AF 228), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In such embodiments, NEF223 may authenticate, authorize, and/or limit AF. NEF223 may also convert information exchanged with AF 228 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF223 may convert between an AF service identifier and internal 5GC information. NEF223 can also receive information from other Network Functions (NF) based on their exposed capabilities. This information may be stored as structured data in the NEF223 or stored in the data storage NF using a standardized interface. The stored information may then be re-exposed to other NFs and AFs by NEF223 and/or used for other purposes, such as analysis. In addition, NEF223 may expose an interface based on Nnef services.

The NRF 225 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 225 also maintains information of available NF instances and services supported thereby. As used herein, the term "instantiation" and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. In addition, NRF 225 may expose an interface based on Nnrf services.

PCF 226 may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) to implement them and may also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. PCF 226 may also implement a Front End (FE) to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of UDM 227. PCF 226 may communicate with AMF 221 via an N15 reference point between PCF 226 and AMF 221, which may include PCF 226 in the visited network and AMF 221 in a roaming scenario. PCF 226 may communicate with AF 228 via an N5 reference point between PCF 226 and AF 228; and communicates with SMF 224 via an N7 reference point between PCF 226 and SMF 224. System 200 and/or CN120 may also include an N24 reference point between PCF 226 (in the home network) and PCF 226 in the visited network. In addition, PCF 226 may expose an interface based on the Npcf service.

The UDM 227 may process subscription related information to support the processing of communication sessions by network entities and may store subscription data for the UE 201. For example, subscription data may be transferred between UDM 227 and AMF 221 via an N8 reference point (not shown in fig. 2) between UDM 227 and AMF 221. UDM 227 may include two parts: the FE and unified data store (UDR) are applied (FE and UDR are not shown in fig. 2). UDR may store subscription data and policy data for UDM 227 and PCF 226, and/or structured data and application data for exposure (including Packet Flow Description (PFD) for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 201) for NEF 223. UDR 221 may expose an interface based on the Nudr service to allow UDM 227, PCF 226, and NEF 223 to access a particular set of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM FE that is responsible for the handling of credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. 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 processing; access authorization; registration/mobility management; and subscription management. UDR may interact with SMF 224 via an N10 reference point between UDM 227 and SMF 224. The UDM 227 may also support SMS management, where SMS-FEs implement similar application logic as previously described. In addition, UDM 227 may expose a Nudm service based interface.

The AF 228 may provide application impact on traffic routing, access Network Capability Exposure (NCE), and interact with policy frameworks for policy control. NCE may be a mechanism that allows 5gc 220 and AF 228 to provide information to each other via NEF 223, which may be used for edge computing implementations. In such an implementation, network operators and third party services may be hosted close to the UE 201 access point to enable efficient service delivery with reduced end-to-end delay and load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC may select the UPF 202 close to the UE 201 and perform traffic steering from the UPF 202 to the DN 203 via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, the UE location and the information provided by AF 228. In this way, AF 228 may affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on the operator deployment, the network operator may allow the AF 228 to interact directly with the associated NF when the AF 228 is considered a trusted entity. In addition, AF 228 may expose an interface based on Naf services.

NSSF 229 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 201. NSSF 229 may also determine allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and a mapping to subscribed single NSSAI (S-NSSAI), if desired. NSSF 229 may also determine a list of candidate AMFs 221 or a set of AMFs for serving UE 201 based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying NRF 225. Selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 201 may be triggered by AMF 221 (which registers UE 201 by interacting with NSSF 229), which may result in a change of AMF 221. NSSF 229 may interact with AMF 221 via an N22 reference point between AMF 221 and NSSF 229; and may communicate with another NSSF 229 in the visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown in fig. 2). In addition, NSSF 229 may expose an interface based on the Nnssf service.

As previously described, the 5gc 220 may include SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and authentication, and relay SM messages from other entities to the UE 201/relay SM messages from the UE 201 to other entities, which may be, for example, SMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS routers. SMS may also interact with AMF 221 and UDM 227 for notification procedures that UE 201 is available for SMS delivery (e.g., setting a UE unreachable flag and notifying UDM 227 when UE 201 is available for SMS).

The 5GC 220 may also include other elements not shown in FIG. 2, such as a data storage system/architecture, a 5G device identity register (5G-EIR), a Secure Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), and the like. The data storage system may include a structured data storage network function (SDSF), an unstructured data storage network function (UDSF), and so forth. Any NF may store unstructured data into or retrieve unstructured data (e.g., UE context) from the UDSF via an N18 reference point (not shown in fig. 2) between any NF and the UDSF. Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data, or individual NFs may each have their own UDSF located at or near the individual NFs. In addition, the UDSF may expose an interface based on Nudsf services (not shown in fig. 2). The 5G-EIR may be NF, which checks the status of a permanent device identifier (PEI) to determine if a particular device/entity is blacklisted from the network; the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing over the inter-PLMN control plane interface.

In addition, there may be more reference points and/or service-based interfaces between NF services in the NF; however, these interfaces and reference points are omitted from fig. 2 for clarity. In one example, the 5gc 220 may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between the MME and the AMF 221 to enable interworking between the EPC and the 5gc 220. Other example interfaces/references these points may include an N5G-EIR service-based interface exposed by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between an NRF in the visited network and an NRF in the home network; and an N31 reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF in the home network.

Fig. 3 shows a diagram of a network 300 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The network 300 may operate in a manner consistent with the 3GPP technical specifications of LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this respect and the described embodiments may be applied to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems and the like.

The network 300 may include a UE 302 that may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN 304 via an over-the-air connection. The UE 302 may be, but is not limited to, a smart phone, tablet, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment device, in-vehicle entertainment device, instrument cluster, heads-up display device, on-vehicle diagnostic device, dashboard mobile device, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networking appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, internet of things device, etc.

In some embodiments, the network 300 may include multiple UEs directly coupled to each other through a side link interface. The UE may be an M2M/D2D device that communicates using a physical side link channel (e.g., without limitation, a physical side link broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical side link discovery channel (PSDCH), a physical side link shared channel (PSSCH), a physical side link control channel (PSCCH), a physical side link fundamental channel (PSFCH), etc.).

In some embodiments, UE 302 may also communicate with AP306 over an air connection. AP306 may manage WLAN connections that may be used to offload some/all network traffic from RAN 304. The connection between the UE 302 and the AP306 may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, where the AP306 may be wireless fidelityAnd a router. In some embodiments, UE 302, RAN304, and AP306 may utilize cellular WLAN aggregation (e.g., LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA)/lightweight IP (LWIP)). Cellular WLAN aggregation may involve the UE 302 configured by the RAN304 utilizing both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources.

RAN304 may include one or more access nodes, such as AN 308.AN 308 may terminate the air interface protocol of UE 302 by providing access layer protocols including RRC, packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP), radio Link Control (RLC), medium Access Control (MAC), and L1 protocols. In this way, the AN 308 may enable data/voice connectivity between the CN 320 and the UE 302. In some embodiments, the AN 308 may be implemented in a separate device or as one or more software entities running on a server computer, as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool, for example. The AN 308 may be referred to as a Base Station (BS), a gNB, a RAN node, AN evolved node B (eNB), a next generation eNB (ng-eNB), a node B (NodeB), a roadside unit (RSU), a TRxP, a TRP, and the like. The AN 308 may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing a microcell, picocell, or other similar cell having a smaller coverage area, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth than the macrocell.

In embodiments where the RAN 304 includes multiple ANs, they may be coupled to each other through AN X2 interface (in the case where the RAN 304 is AN LTE RAN) or AN Xn interface (in the case where the RAN 304 is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interface, which in some embodiments may be separated into a control plane interface/user plane interface, may allow the AN to communicate information related to handoff, data/context transfer, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc.

The AN of RAN 304 may separately manage one or more cells, groups of cells, component carriers, etc. to provide AN air interface for network access to UE 302. The UE 302 may be connected simultaneously with multiple cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN 304. For example, the UE 302 and the RAN 304 may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE 302 to connect with multiple component carriers, each component carrier corresponding to a primary cell (Pcell) or a secondary cell (Scell). In a dual connectivity scenario, the first AN may be a primary node providing a primary cell group (MCG) and the second AN may be a secondary node providing a Secondary Cell Group (SCG). The first/second AN may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-enbs, etc.

RAN 304 may provide the air interface over licensed spectrum or unlicensed spectrum. To operate in unlicensed spectrum, a node may use License Assisted Access (LAA), enhanced LAA (eLAA), and/or further enhanced LAA (feLAA) mechanisms based on Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology with PCell/Scell. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the node may perform media/carrier sensing operations based on, for example, a Listen Before Talk (LBT) protocol.

In a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) scenario, the UE 302 or AN 308 may be or act as a roadside unit (RSU), which may refer to any transport infrastructure entity for V2X communications. The RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a "UE-type RSU"; an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an "eNB-type RSU"; RSUs implemented in or by next generation nodebs (gnbs) may be referred to as "gNB-type RSUs"; etc. In one example, the RSU is a computing device coupled with a radio frequency circuit located at the roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry for storing intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, and applications/software for sensing and controlling ongoing vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as collision avoidance, traffic alerts, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communication services. The components of the RSU may be enclosed in a weather-proof 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 backhaul network.

In some embodiments, RAN 304 may be an LTE RAN 310 including an evolved node B (eNB), e.g., eNB 312.LTE RAN 310 may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; a CP-OFDM waveform for DL and an SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo code for data, TBCC for control, etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation is performed depending on PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation reference signals (DMRS); and relying on 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 operate over the sub-6 GHz band.

In some embodiments, RAN 304 may be a Next Generation (NG) -RAN 314 with a gNB (e.g., gNB 316) or gn-eNB (e.g., NG-eNB 318). The gNB 316 may connect with 5G enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB 316 may connect with the 5G core through a NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The Ng-eNB 318 may also connect with the 5G core over the Ng interface, but may connect with the UE over the LTE air interface. The gNB 316 and the ng-eNB 318 may be connected to each other via an Xn interface.

In some embodiments, the NG interface may be divided into two parts, a NG user plane (NG-U) interface that carries traffic data between nodes of NG-RAN 314 and UPF 348, and a NG control plane (NG-C) interface that is a signaling interface (e.g., an N2 interface) between NG-RAN 314 and nodes of access and mobility management function (AMF) 344.

NG-RAN 314 may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: a variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM for UL, and DFT-s-OFDM; polarity, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller (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 CRS but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; phase tracking of PDSCH using PTRS; and performing time tracking using the tracking reference signal. The 5G-NR air interface may operate on an FR1 band including a sub-6 GHz band or an FR2 band including 24.25GHz to 52.6GHz bands. The 5G-NR air interface may comprise an SSB, which is an area of the downlink resource grid comprising PSS/SSS/PBCH.

In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may use BWP for various purposes. For example, BWP may be used for dynamic adaptation of SCS. For example, UE 302 may be configured with multiple BWP's, where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE 302, the SCS of the transmission is also changed. Another use case of BWP relates to power saving. In particular, the UE 302 may be configured with multiple BWPs having different numbers of frequency resources (e.g., PRBs) to support data transmission in different traffic load scenarios. BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs may be used for data transmission with smaller traffic load while allowing power saving at UE 302 and in some cases the gcb 316. BWP comprising a large number of PRBs may be used for scenes with higher traffic loads.

RAN 304 is communicatively coupled to CN 320, which includes network elements, to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to clients/subscribers (e.g., users of UE 302). The components of CN 320 may be implemented in one physical node or in a different physical node. In some embodiments, NFV may be used to virtualize any or all of the functionality provided by the network elements of CN 320 onto physical computing/storage resources in servers, switches, and the like. The logical instance of CN 320 may be referred to as a network slice, and the logical instantiation of a portion of CN 320 may be referred to as a network sub-slice.

In some embodiments, CN 320 may be an LTE CN 322, which may also be referred to as an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). LTE CN 322 may include a Mobility Management Entity (MME) 324, a Serving Gateway (SGW) 326, a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 328, a Home Subscriber Server (HSS) 330, a Proxy Gateway (PGW) 332, and a policy control and charging rules function (PCRF) 334, which are coupled to each other through an interface (or "reference point") as shown. The function of the elements of LTE CN 322 may be briefly described as follows.

The MME 324 may implement mobility management functions to track the current location of the UE 302 to facilitate policing, bearer activation/deactivation, handover, gateway selection, authentication, etc.

SGW 326 may terminate the S1 interface towards the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and LTE CN 322. SGW 326 may be a local mobility anchor for inter-RAN node handover and may also provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful interception, charging, and some policy enforcement.

SGSN 328 can track the location of UE 302 and perform security functions and access control. In addition, SGSN 328 may perform EPC inter-node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; MME 324 specified PDN and S-GW selection; MME selection for handover, etc. The S3 reference point between MME 324 and SGSN 328 may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3 GPP network mobility in the idle/active state.

HSS 330 may include a database for network users that includes subscription-related information that supports network entity handling communication sessions. HSS 330 may provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, permissions, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, and the like. The S6a reference point between the HSS 330 and the MME 324 may enable the transmission of subscription and authentication data to authenticate/grant the user access to the LTE CN 320.

PGW 332 may terminate an SGi interface towards a Data Network (DN) 336 that may include an application/content server 338. PGW 332 may route data packets between LTE CN 322 and data network 336. PGW 332 may be coupled to SGW 326 via an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. PGW 332 may also include nodes (e.g., PCEFs) for policy enforcement and charging data collection. In addition, the SGi reference point between PGW 332 and data network 336 may be, for example, an operator external public, private PDN, or an operator internal packet data network for providing IMS services. PGW 332 may be coupled with PCRF 334 via a Gx reference point.

PCRF 334 is the policy and charging control element of LTE CN 322. PCRF 334 may be communicatively coupled to application/content server 338 to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for the service flows. PCRF 332 may provide the associated rules to the PCEF with the appropriate TFT and QCI (via the Gx reference point).

In some embodiments, CN 320 may be a 5G core network (5 GC) 340. The 5gc 340 may include an authentication server function (AUSF) 342, an access and mobility management function (AMF) 344, a Session Management Function (SMF) 346, a User Plane Function (UPF) 348, a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF) 350, a network open function (NEF) 352, an NF storage function (NRF) 354, a Policy Control Function (PCF) 356, a Unified Data Management (UDM) 358, and an Application Function (AF) 360, which are coupled to each other through an interface (or "reference point") as shown. The function of the elements of the 5gc 340 may be briefly described as follows.

The AUSF 342 may store data for authentication of the UE 302 and process authentication related functions. The AUSF 342 may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5gc 340 through reference points as shown, the AUSF 342 may also present an interface based on the Nausf service.

The AMF 344 may allow other functions of the 5gc 340 to communicate with the UE 302 and RAN 304 and subscribe to notifications about mobility events of the UE 302. The AMF 344 may be responsible for registration management (e.g., registering the UE 302), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful intercept AMF related events, and access authentication and permissions. The AMF 344 may provide for the transmission of Session Management (SM) messages between the UE 302 and the SMF346 and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. The AMF 344 may also provide for transmission of SMS messages between the UE 302 and the SMSF. The AMF 344 may interact with the AUSF 342 and the UE 302 to perform various security anchoring and context management functions. Furthermore, the AMF 344 may be an end point of the RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN 304 and the AMF 344; the AMF 344 may act as an endpoint for NAS (N1) signaling and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. The AMF 344 may also support NAS signaling with the UE 302 over the N3 IWF interface.

The SMF 346 may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, tunnel management between UPF 348 and AN 308); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional permissions); selection and control of the UP function; configuring flow control at the UPF 348 to route traffic to the appropriate destination; termination of the interface to the policy control function; control policy enforcement, charging, and a portion of QoS; legal interception (for SM events and interfaces to LI systems); terminating the SM portion of the NAS message; downlink data notification; initiating AN-specific SM information (sent over N2 to AN 308 through AMF 344); and determining the SSC mode of the session. SM may refer to the management of PDU sessions, and PDU sessions or "sessions" may refer to PDU connectivity services that provide or enable PDU exchanges between UE 302 and data network 336.

UPF 348 may serve as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point interconnected with data network 336, and a branching point to support multi-homing PDU sessions. UPF 348 may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, perform policy rules user plane part, lawful interception packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS processing for the user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF to QoS flow mapping), transport layer packet tagging in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF 348 may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to the data network.

NSSF 350 may select a set of network slice instances to serve UE 302. The NSSF 350 may also determine the allowed Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI) and the mapping to subscribed individual NSSAIs (S-NSSAIs), if desired. NSSF 350 may also determine the set of AMFs to use for serving UE 302, or a list of candidate AMFs, based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying NRF 354. The selection of a set of network slice instances for UE 302 may be triggered by AMF 344 (with which UE 302 registers by interacting with NSSF 350), which may result in a change in AMF. NSSF 350 may interact with AMF 344 via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in the visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). In addition, NSSF 350 may expose an interface based on the Nnssf service.

The NEF352 may securely disclose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third parties, internal disclosure/rediscovery, AF (e.g., AF 360), edge computing or fog computing systems, and the like. In these embodiments, NEF352 can authenticate, permit, or throttle AFs. The NEF352 may also translate information exchanged with the AF 360 and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF352 may translate between AF service identifiers and internal 5GC information. The NEF352 may also receive information from other NFs based on their public capabilities. This information may be stored as structured data at the NEF352 or at the data store NF using a standardized interface. The NEF352 may then re-disclose the stored information to other NFs and AFs, or for other purposes such as analysis. In addition, NEF352 may expose an interface based on Nnef services.

NRF 354 may support a service discovery function, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF 354 also maintains information of available NF instances and services supported by them. As used herein, the terms "instantiate," "instance," and the like may refer to creating an instance, "instance" may refer to a specific occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Further, NRF 354 may expose an interface based on the Nnrf service.

PCF 356 may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them and may also support a unified policy framework to manage network behavior. PCF 356 may also implement a front end to access subscription information related to policy decisions in the UDR of UDM 358. In addition to communicating with functions through reference points as shown, PCF 356 also presents an interface based on the Npcf service.

The UDM 358 may process subscription related information to support network entities in handling communication sessions and may store subscription data for the UE 302. For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM 358 and the AMF 344. UDM 358 may include two parts: application front-end and UDR. The UDR may store policy data and subscription data for UDM 358 and PCF 356, and/or structured data and application data for the disclosure for NEF 352 (including PFD for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs 302). UDR 221 may expose an interface based on the Nudr service to allow UDM 358, PCF 356, and NEF 352 to access specific sets of stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notifications of related data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE that is responsible for handling credentials, location management, subscription management, etc. 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 processing, access permissions, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs through reference points as shown, the UDM 358 may also present an interface based on Nudm services.

AF 360 may provide application impact on traffic routing, provide access to the NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control.

In some embodiments, the 5gc 340 may enable edge computation by selecting an operator/third party service that is geographically close to the point where the UE 302 attaches to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge computing implementations, the 5gc 340 may select a UPF348 close to the UE 302 and perform traffic steering from the UPF348 to the data network 336 over the N6 interface. This may be based on UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by AF 360. In this way, AF 360 may affect UPF (re) selection and traffic routing. Based on the carrier deployment, the network operator may allow AF 360 to interact directly with the associated NF when AF 360 is considered a trusted entity. In addition, AF 360 may expose an interface based on Naf services.

The data network 336 may represent various network operator services, internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers, including, for example, an application/content server 338.

In 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 23.700-85V0.1.0 (2022-03) (third Generation partnership project; technical Specification group services and System aspects; 5G User Equipment (UE) policy enhancement study (Release 18)), there are issues with respect to how to support UE routing policies (URSP) in Visiting Public Land Mobile Networks (VPLMNs). This problem will study the urs rules configuration and update procedure in roaming scenarios while maintaining backward compatibility with existing HPLMN based policy control frameworks. In particular: a) In roaming, whether the HPLMN needs to obtain any information from the VPLMN to generate the urs rules, and if so, which information to provide and how to provide; b) How to provide the URSP rules to the UE when roaming, and in particular how the HPLMN and the VPLMN participate in this process; and c) whether and how to support the URSP enhancements to support routing of application traffic with different URSP rules in different PLMNs. And may also relate to some other aspect, which the present disclosure is not limited to.

In some embodiments, one solution is to utilize 3GPP TS23.548V17.1.0 (2021-12) (third generation partnership project; technical specification group services and systems aspects; 5G systems enhancement for edge computation (release 17)) defined for R17, clause 6.6, "support Policy Control Function (PCF) determination of appropriate urs rules for Application Function (AF) guidance" and 3GPP TS 23.502V17.3.0 (2021-12) (third generation partnership project; technical specification group services and systems aspects; procedures for 5G systems (5 GS); clause 4.15.6.10 "apply guidance for urs rules determination mechanism" for phase 2 (release 17)).

In some embodiments, VPLMN network functions (e.g., unified Data Management (UDM), unified Data Repository (UDR), visiting PCF (V-PCF), or AF) as AFs of the HPLMN may provide VPLMN-specific urs p information (e.g., DNN and S-nsai for application traffic, etc.) (e.g., according to TS23.548, item 6.6, "support AF guidance for PCF determination of appropriate urs rules" and TS 23.502, item 4.15.6.10, "application guidance for urs rule determination mechanism"). The PCF of the HPLMN, referred to as the home PCF (H-PCF), may use the indication if authorized by the HPLMN policy to provide a dedicated urs rule applicable to the relevant user of the HPLMN roaming in the VPLMN. These urs may have validity conditions corresponding to VPLMNs.

In some embodiments, the H-PCF may incorporate the URSP rules of the VPLMN by including the VPLMN ID in the URSP rules of the VPLMN based on a local policy. The H-PCF may determine whether to send the urs rules to the UE all the time immediately or only when the corresponding serving PLMN is serving the UE, e.g. wait for V-PCF triggering of the serving PLMN as in step 3 of TS 23.502, 4.6.11.

In some embodiments, the H-PCF may need to ensure that DNNs, S-NSSAIs provided in the urs rules sent to the UE are allowed in the UDM subscription when sending urs updates to the UE, even if the UE roams in the VPLMN.

In some embodiments, the VPLMN ID may be sent to the UE as an element mapped to the urs rule(s). For example, the VPLMN ID may have a mapping relationship with a policy area index (PSI) or a PSI list. The policy area (PS) is associated with the urs rule(s), e.g., contains the urs rule(s). The PCF may provide the UE with a tuple (PLMN ID, PSI list associated with the PLMN ID). In a roaming scenario, the H-PCF provides this information via the V-PCF.

In some embodiments, the VPLMN ID may be sent to the UE as part of the urs. Table 1 below shows an example of including a VPLMN ID in a urs p.

Table 1: UE routing strategy

In some embodiments, if a URSP of a VPLMN is configured to a UE and the UE roams to this VPLMN, it may evaluate the VPLMN-related URSP to establish a new PDU session or to associate with an existing PDU session before evaluating the HPLMN-related URSP.

As shown in fig. 4, at step 1, AF initiates the procedure specified in clause 4.15.6.7 of TS 23.502.

At step 2, the NEF sends a Nudm_ServiceSpecificAuthority_Create request containing the S-NSSAI/DNN and service type received from the AF.

At step 3, the UDM grants the AF request.

If the request is for a single UE, the UDM checks a list of subscribed/allowed S-nsais/DNNs and other service information for that UE (e.g., authorizes the MTC provider for that UE).

If the request is for a UE group, the UDM checks if group related data (e.g., DNN/S-nsai group related data, see table TS 23.502, 4.15.6.3b-1) and other service information (e.g., MTC provider) is authorized for that group.

If the request is for a VPLMN, the UDM checks if VPLMN related data (e.g., DNN/S-nsai related data) and other service information is authorized for that VPLMN.

At step 4, the UDM responds to the NEF with a service authorization result. If the authorization fails (e.g., DNN is not subscribed to for the UE or is different from the group related data, which does not allow dynamic modification of URSP rules by the AF or such specific AF or MTC provider), the UDM returns a negative response with an appropriate error code and NEF denies the request using the appropriate error code to inform that the AF request is not authorized.

MTC provider information may be used by any type of service provider (MTC or non-MTC) or company or external party, for example to distinguish its different customers.

At step 5, the process continues as specified in clause 4.15.6.7 of TS 23.502.

As shown in fig. 5, at step 1, the UDM sends service specific authorization update information to the NEF using a nudm_serviceentity_update notification request (general public subscription identifier (GPSI), external group Id, S-nsai, DNN, result) message to update the authorization of the UE or group of UEs.

At step 2, the NEF sends a Nudm_ServiceSpecificAuthorization_UpdateNotifyresponse message to the UDM to confirm the authorization update.

At step 3, if the authorization is revoked, the NEF deletes the service specific parameters from the UDR.

At step 4, the NEF informs the AF that the AF service parameter authorization status has changed by sending an nnef_serviceparameter_notify request (GPSI, external group Id, TLTRI result) message to the AF.

At step 5, the AF responds to the NEF with an nnef_serviceparameter_notify response message.

In the embodiment of fig. 6, the AF provides service-specific parameters to PLMNs and UEs using the nnef_serviceparameters service.

As shown in fig. 6, at step 1, the AF invokes the nnef_serviceparameter_create service operation in order to Create a new request. The request may include subscription information for reporting UE policy delivery results.

To Update or remove the existing request, the AF invokes an Nnef_ServiceParameter_Update or an Nnef_ServiceParameter_Deleteservice operation and the corresponding transaction reference ID that has been provided to the AF in the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create response message.

The content of the present service operation (AF request) includes information described in 5.2.6.11 th item of TS 23.502. The VPLMN ID is added as optional input data for Nnef serviceparameter_create/Update/Delete operation.

At step 2, the AF sends its request to the NEF. The NEF grants the AF request. The NEF performs the following mapping:

-mapping AF-Service-Identifier to DNN and S-nsai combination according to local configuration.

-mapping the external application identifier to a corresponding application identifier known in the core network.

-mapping the GPSI in the target UE identifier to the SUPI based on information received from the UDM.

-mapping an external group identifier to an internal group identifier in the target UE identifier based on the information received from the UDM.

If the AF subscribes to the results of the UE policy delivery, then the NEF indicates where the NEF receives the corresponding notification.

(in the case of Nnef serviceparameter_create): the NEF assigns a transaction reference ID to the Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create request.

At step 3, (in the case of nnef_serviceparameter_create or Update): the NEF stores the AF request information in the UDR as "application data" (the subset of data is set to "service specific information") and also stores the assigned transaction reference ID together in the UDR.

(in the case of nnef_serviceparameter_delete): the NEF deletes the AF request information from the UDR.

At step 4, the NEF responds to AF. In the case of the Nnef serviceparameter_create response message, the response message includes the assigned transaction reference ID.

If the UE is registered with the network and the PCF notifies the modified data subscription in the UDR by invoking nudr_dm_subscribe (AF service parameter configuration information, SUPI, data set to "application data", data subset set to "service specific information") at step 0, the following steps are performed:

at step 5, the PCF(s) receive a nudr_dm_notify notification of the data change from the UDR.

The PCF does not have to subscribe to application-specific information for each UE, for example, if the PCF has received application-specific information for the UE group or for the DNN through subscriptions of other UEs. The same application specific information is delivered to each UE in the group or DNN.

At step 6, the PCF initiates UE policy delivery according to the specification of clause 4.2.4.3 of TS 23.502.

At step 7, if the AF subscribes to a notification about the UE policy delivery result due to the service-specific parameter configuration for a single UE, and the PCF obtains a notification of the UE policy container from the AMF, the PCF notifies the UE policy delivery result contained in the UE policy container to the NEF as a result of the procedure by sending npcf_eventExposure_notify.

If the PCF obtains notification from the AMF that the UE policy delivery failed because the UE is not reachable, the PCF may decide to retry step 6 of the process when the UE becomes reachable. In this case, the PCF may report a temporary status (e.g., UE temporarily unreachable) to the NEF by sending npcf_eventExponsure_notify as a result of the process.

If the PCF determines that the UE policy delivery procedure fails, the PCF notifies the NEF of the failure as a result of the procedure by sending an Npcf EventExposure_Notify.

At step 8, when the NEF receives the npcf_eventExponsure_notify, the NEF performs information mapping (e.g., informs the AF transaction internal ID to AF transaction ID mapping provided in the association ID, SUPI to GPSI mapping, etc.), and triggers the appropriate nnef_servicepost_notify message.

Examples of NEF service parameters are provided below.

Nef_ServiceParameter service

1 overview

The service allows the external party to configure service specific parameters that are available to the UE in 5 GS. See clause 4.15.6.7 of TS 23.502 for details.

2Nnef_ServiceProstraameter_Create operation

Service operation name: nef_ServiceParameter_Create

Description of: the consumer stores the service-specific parameters in the UDR via the NEF.

The necessary inputs: a service descriptor (e.g., a combination of DNN and S-NSSAI, an AF service identifier or an external application identifier).

Optional inputs: service parameters and target UE identifiers (e.g., address of UE (IP or ethernet), if available, GPSI, if available, external group identifier, if available, VPLMN ID, if available), subsribedevents, notification Destination.

If the identifier of the target UE(s) or group of UEs is not provided, the service parameters correspond to any UE using the service identified by the service description.

The necessary outputs: transaction reference ID, operation execution result indication.

Optional output: and no.

3Nnef_ServiceProstraameter_update operation

Service operation name: nnef_ServicePaameter_update

Description of: the consumer updates the service-specific parameters in the UDR via the NEF.

The necessary inputs: service descriptors (e.g., combination of DNN and S-NSSAI, AF service identifier or external application identifier), transaction reference IDs.

Optional inputs: service parameters and a target UE identifier (e.g., address of UE (IP or ethernet), if available, GPSI, if available, external group identifier, if available, VPLMN ID, if available).

The necessary outputs: and (5) indicating an operation execution result.

Optional output: and no.

4Nnef_ServiceProstraameter_Delete operation

Service operation name: nef_ServiceParameter_Delete

Description of: the consumer deletes the service-specific parameters in the UDR via the NEF.

Optional inputs: the target UE identifier (e.g., the address of the UE (IP or ethernet), if available, GPSI, if available, external group identifier, if available, VPLMN ID, if available).

The necessary outputs: and (5) indicating an operation execution result.

Optional output: and no.

5Nnef_ServiceProstraameter_get operation

Service operation name: nef_ServiceParameter_get

Description of: the consumer obtains service-specific parameters in the UDR via the NEF.

The necessary outputs: transaction reference ID, operation execution result indicates the requested data.

Optional output: and no.

6Nnef_ServiceProstraameter_Notify operation

Service operation name: nnef_ServicePaameter_Notify

Description of: the service operation is that the NEF is to notify the AF of the service parameter authorization update (e.g., revoke authorization). The notification event related to invoking the nnef_serviceparameter service is forwarded to the AF, e.g. the result of UE policy delivery is notified to the AF.

The necessary inputs: transaction reference ID, GPSI, external group ID, arbitrary UE, event ID, result.

The transaction reference ID identifies the AF request for service-specific parameter configuration related to the event report. The event ID may be the UE policy delivery result defined in clause 4.15.6.7 of TS 23.502. GPSI is an identifier of a UE related to event reporting.

Optional inputs: DNN, S-NSSAI, event information (defined on a per event ID basis, which may include the results of the UE policy delivery procedure for UE policy delivery results and an identifier of the cause for unsuccessful results).

The necessary outputs: and (5) indicating an operation execution result.

Optional output: and no.

Fig. 7 illustrates a flow chart of a method 700 for supporting VPLMN-specific urs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

At 710, the urs information received from the VPLMN is decoded to obtain the urs rules of the VPLMN.

At 720, the urs rule information is encoded for transmission to the UE. The URSP rule information includes the URSP rule of the VPLMN and the VPLMN ID of the VPLMN.

In some embodiments, the VPLMN ID has a mapping relationship with a policy area index (PSI) associated with the urs rules.

In some embodiments, the VPLMN ID is included in a urs rule of the VPLMN.

Method 700 may be applied by an H-PCF. Method 700 may include more and fewer steps and the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Fig. 8 illustrates a flow chart of a method 800 for supporting VPLMN-specific urs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

At 810, the AF request received from the NEF is analyzed to obtain information related to determining the URSP in the HPLMN.

At 820, in response to the AF request being associated with the VPLMN, it is checked whether service information is authorized for the VPLMN.

At 830, the authorization result is responded to the NEF.

In some embodiments, the AF request includes a Nudm_ServiceSpecificAuthorization_Create request.

The method 800 may be applied by a UDM. Method 800 may include more or fewer steps and the present disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Fig. 9 illustrates a flow chart of a method 900 for supporting VPLMN-specific urs according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

At 910, an AF request received from the VPLMN network function is analyzed to obtain information related to determining a URSP in the HPLMN.

At 920, the information is processed in the UDR. The information includes a VPLMN ID associated with the VPLMN network function.

In some embodiments, the AF request includes an Nnef_ServiceParameter_Create request. Information related to determining the urs in the HPLMN is stored in the UDR.

In some embodiments, the AF request includes an Nnef_ServiceParameter_update request. Information related to determining the urs in the HPLMN is updated in the UDR.

In some embodiments, the AF request includes an Nnef_ServiceParameter_Deleterequest. Information related to determining the urs in the HPLMN is deleted from the UDR.

In some embodiments, the AF request includes an Nnef_ServiceParameter_get request. Information related to determining the urs in the HPLMN is obtained from the UDR.

The method 900 may be applied by NEF. Method 900 may include more or fewer steps, as the disclosure is not limited in this respect.

Fig. 10 illustrates an example of an infrastructure device 1000, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Infrastructure device 1000 (or "system 1000") may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node, etc., such as RAN nodes 111 and 112 and/or AP106 shown and described previously. In other examples, system 1000 may be implemented in or by a UE, application server(s) 130, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The system 1000 may include one or more of the following: application circuitry 1005, baseband circuitry 1010, one or more radio front end modules 1015, memory 1020, power management integrated circuits (power management integrated circuitry, PMIC) 1025, power tee circuit 1030, network controller 1035, network interface connector 1040, satellite positioning circuitry 1045, and user interface 1050. In some embodiments, the apparatus 1000 may include additional elements, such as memory/storage, a display, a camera, a sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface elements. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., for a cloud RAN (C-RAN) implementation, the circuitry may be included separately in more than one device).

As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include, hardware components such as the following configured to provide the described functionality: electronic circuitry, logic circuitry, processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), application specific integrated circuit (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), field-programmable device (field-programmable device, FPD) (e.g., field-programmable gate array (field-programmable gate array, FPGA), programmable logic device (programmable logic device, PLD), complex PLD (CPLD), high-capacity PLD (hcpll), structured ASIC, or programmable System on Chip (SoC)), digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), and so forth. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functions. Furthermore, the term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or circuitry for use in an electrical or electronic system) and program code for performing the functions of the program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuit.

The terms "application circuitry" and/or "baseband circuitry" may be considered synonymous with "processor circuitry" and may be referred to as "processor circuitry". As used herein, the term "processor circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include the following: the circuitry is capable of sequentially and automatically performing a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations; and recording, storing and/or transmitting digital data. The term "processor circuit" 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 tri-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer executable instructions such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.

Further, various components of the core network 120 (or CN 120 previously discussed) may be referred to as "network elements. The term "network element" may describe a physical or virtualized device for providing wired or wireless communication network services. The term "network element" may be considered synonymous with and/or referred to by the following terms: networked computers, networking hardware, network devices, network nodes, routers, switches, hubs, bridges, radio network controllers, radio access network devices, gateways, servers, virtualized network functions (virtualized network function, VNF), network function virtualization infrastructure (network functions virtualization infrastructure, NFVI), and so forth.

The application circuitry 1005 may include one or more central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU) cores and one or more of the following: cache memory, low drop-out (LDO) voltage regulators, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface modules, real Time Clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, universal input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD)/multimedia card (MultiMediaCard, MMC), universal serial bus (Universal Serial Bus, USB) interfaces, mobile industrial processor interface (Mobile Industry Processor Interface, MIPI) interfaces and joint test access group (Joint Test Access Group, JTAG) test access ports. By way of example, application circuitry 1005 may include one or more IntelOr->A processor; superfine semiconductor (Advanced Micro Devices, AMD)Processor, acceleration processing unit (Accelerated Processing Unit, APU) or +.>A processor; etc. In some embodiments, the system 1000 may not utilize the application circuitry 1005, but may include, for example, a dedicated processor/controller to process IP data received from the EPC or 5 GC.

Additionally or alternatively, the application circuitry 1005 may include circuitry such as (but not limited to) the following: one or more Field Programmable Devices (FPDs), such as Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), and the like; programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), such as Complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; an ASIC, such as a structured ASIC, etc.; a programmable SoC (PSoC); etc. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuit 1005 may include logic blocks or logic architectures, including other interconnected resources, that can be programmed to perform various functions, such as the processes, methods, functions, etc. of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such an embodiment, the circuitry of application circuit 1005 may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (static random access memory), antifuse, etc.) for storing logic blocks, logic architectures, data, etc. in a look-up table (LUT), and so forth.

The baseband circuitry 1010 may be implemented, for example, as a solder-in substrate comprising one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board, or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. Although not shown, baseband circuitry 1010 may include one or more digital baseband systems that may be coupled to the CPU subsystem, audio subsystem, and interface subsystem via an interconnect subsystem. The digital baseband subsystem may also be coupled to the digital baseband interface and mixed signal baseband subsystem via additional interconnect subsystems. Each interconnect subsystem may include a bus system, a point-to-point connection, a Network On Chip (NOC) architecture, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include digital signal processing circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, voice processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more amplifiers and filters, and/or other similar components. In an aspect of the disclosure, the baseband circuitry 1010 may include protocol processing circuitry having one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., radio front end module 1015).

The user interface circuitry 1050 may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system 1000 or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable interaction with peripheral components of the system 1000. The user interface may include, but is not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (light emitting diode, LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touch pad, a touch screen, a speaker or other audio emitting device, a microphone, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, and so forth. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, non-volatile memory ports, universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, audio jacks, power supply interfaces, and the like.

Radio Front End Module (RFEM) 1015 may include millimeter wave RFEM and one or more sub-millimeter wave Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, one or more sub-millimeter wave RFICs may be physically separate from millimeter wave RFEM. The RFIC may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays, and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both millimeter wave and sub-millimeter wave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical radio front end module 1015. RFEM 1015 may include both millimeter-wave and sub-millimeter-wave antennas.

The memory circuit 1020 may include one or more of the following: volatile memory, including dynamic random access memory (dynamic random access memory, DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (synchronous dynamic random access memory, SDRAM); and nonvolatile memory (nonvolatile memory, NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as flash memory), phase-change random access memory (phase change random access memory, PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (magnetoresistive random access memory, MRAM), and the like, and may include data fromAndthree-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memory. The memory circuit 1020 may be implemented as one or more of a soldered-in packaged integrated circuit, a socket memory module, and a plug-in memory card.

PMIC 1025 may include a voltage regulator, a surge protector, a power alarm detection circuit, and one or more backup power supplies such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuit may detect one or more of a power down (under voltage) and surge (over voltage) condition. The power tee circuit 1030 may provide power drawn from the network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment 1000 using a single cable.

Network controller circuit 1035 may provide connectivity to the network using standard network interface protocols, such as Ethernet, GRE tunnel-based Ethernet, multiprotocol label switching (Multiprotocol Label Switching, MPLS) based Ethernet, or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment 1000 via network interface connectors 1040 using physical connections, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as "copper interconnects"), optical, or wireless. Network controller circuitry 1035 may include one or more special purpose processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the protocols described above. In some implementations, the network controller circuit 1035 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

The positioning circuitry 1045 may include circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted by one or more navigation satellite constellations of a global navigation satellite system (global navigation satellite system, GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) may include the united states global positioning system (Global Positioning System, GPS), the russian global navigation system (Global Navigation System, GLONASS), the european union galileo system, the chinese beidou navigation satellite system, regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., indian constellation navigation (Navigation with Indian Constellation, NAVIC), the japanese Quasi-zenith satellite system (Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, QZSS), the french satellite integrated doppler orbital imaging and radio positioning (Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite, DORIS), and so forth). The positioning circuitry 1045 may comprise various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, etc.) to facilitate communication over-the-air (OTA) communication to communicate with components of a positioning network (e.g., navigation satellite constellation nodes).

The node or satellite of the navigation satellite constellation(s) (the "GNSS node") may provide positioning services by continuously transmitting or broadcasting GNSS signals along a line of sight, which may be used by a GNSS receiver (e.g., the positioning circuitry 1045 and/or the positioning circuitry implemented by the UEs 101, 102, etc.) to determine its GNSS position. The GNSS signals may include pseudo-random codes (e.g., a sequence of ones and zeros) known to the GNSS receiver and messages including the time of transmission of the code epoch (time of transmission, toT) (e.g., a defined point in the pseudo-random code sequence) and the GNSS node position at ToT. The GNSS receiver may monitor/measure GNSS signals transmitted/broadcast by a plurality of GNSS nodes (e.g., four or more satellites) and solve various equations to determine the corresponding GNSS positions (e.g., spatial coordinates). The GNSS receiver may also implement a clock that is generally less stable and accurate than the atomic clock of the GNSS node, and may use the measured GNSS signals to determine a bias of the GNSS receiver relative to real time (e.g., a bias of the GNSS receiver clock relative to the GNSS node time). In some embodiments, the positioning circuit 1045 may comprise a Micro-technology (Micro-Technology for Positioning, navigation, and Timing, micro-PNT) IC for positioning, navigation, and Timing that uses a master Timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance.

The GNSS receiver may measure time of arrival (ToA) of GNSS signals from the plurality of GNSS nodes according to its own clock. The GNSS receiver may determine a time of flight (ToF) value for each received GNSS signal based on ToA and ToT, and may then determine a three-dimensional (3D) position and clock bias based on ToF. The 3D location may then be converted to latitude, longitude, and altitude. The positioning circuit 1045 may provide data to the application circuit 1005, which may include one or more of location data or time data. The application circuitry 1005 may use the time data to operate synchronously with other radio base stations (e.g., such as RAN nodes 111, 112).

The components shown in fig. 10 may communicate with each other using interface circuitry. As used herein, the term "interface circuit" may refer to, be part of, or include circuitry that supports the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term "interface circuit" may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, such as a bus, an input/output (I/O) interface, a peripheral component interface, a network interface card, and so forth. Any suitable bus technology may be used in various implementations, including any number of technologies, including industry standard architecture (industry standard architecture, ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (peripheral component interconnect, PCI), extended peripheral component interconnect (peripheral component interconnect extended, PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in SoC-based systems. Other bus systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, a point-to-point interface, and a power bus, among others.

Fig. 11 schematically illustrates a wireless network 1100 in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network 1100 may include a UE1102 in wireless communication with AN 1104. The UE1102 and the AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the mission components described elsewhere herein.

UE1102 may be communicatively coupled with AN 1104 via a connection 1106. Connection 1106 is shown as an air interface to enable communicative coupling and may be consistent with a cellular communication protocol operating at millimeter wave (mmWave) or sub-6 GHz frequencies, such as the LTE protocol or the 5G NR protocol.

The UE1102 may include a host platform 1108 coupled with a modem platform 1110. Host platform 1108 may include application processing circuitry 1112 that may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1114 of modem platform 1110. Application processing circuitry 1112 may run various applications of source/receiver application data for UE 1102. The application processing circuitry 1112 may also implement one or more layer operations to transmit and receive application data to and from the data network. These layer operations may include transport (e.g., UDP) and internet (e.g., IP) operations.

Protocol processing circuitry 1114 may implement one or more layers of operations to facilitate the transmission or reception of data over connection 1106. Layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry 1114 may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC, and NAS operations.

Modem platform 1110 may further include digital baseband circuitry 1116, which digital baseband circuitry 1116 may implement one or more layer operations that are "lower" than layer operations performed by protocol processing circuitry 1114 in the 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/demapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, where these functions 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 1110 may further include transmit circuitry 1118, receive circuitry 1120, RF circuitry 1122, and RF front end (RFFE) circuitry 1124, which may include or be connected to one or more antenna panels 1126. Briefly, the transmit circuit 1118 may include digital-to-analog converters, mixers, intermediate Frequency (IF) components, and the like; the receive circuitry 1120 may include analog-to-digital converters, mixers, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry 1122 may include low noise amplifiers, power tracking components, and the like; RFFE circuit 1124 may include filters (e.g., surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beam forming components (e.g., phased array antenna components), and so forth. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuit 1118, receive circuit 1120, RF circuit 1122, RFFE circuit 1124, and antenna panel 1126 (collectively "transmit/receive components") may be specific to the specifics of a particular implementation, e.g., whether the communication is TDM or FDM, at mmWave or sub-6 GHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in a plurality of parallel transmit/receive chains, and may be arranged in the same or different chips/modules, etc.

In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuit 1114 may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components.

UE reception may be established through and via antenna panel 1126, RFFE circuitry 1124, RF circuitry 1122, receive circuitry 1120, digital baseband circuitry 1116, and protocol processing circuitry 1114. In some embodiments, the antenna panel 1126 may receive transmissions from the AN 1104 by receiving beamformed signals received by multiple antennas/antenna elements of one or more antenna panels 1126.

UE transmissions may be established via and through the protocol processing circuitry 1114, the digital baseband circuitry 1116, the transmit circuitry 1118, the RF circuitry 1122, the RFFE circuitry 1124, and the antenna panel 1126. In some embodiments, the transmit component of UE 1104 may apply spatial filters to data to be transmitted to form transmit beams that are transmitted by antenna elements of antenna panel 1126.

Similar to UE 1102, AN 1104 may include a host platform 1128 coupled with a modem platform 1130. Host platform 1128 may include application processing circuitry 1132 coupled with protocol processing circuitry 1134 of modem platform 1130. The modem platform may also include digital baseband circuitry 1136, transmit circuitry 1138, receive circuitry 1140, RF circuitry 1142, RFFE circuitry 1144, and antenna panel 1146. The components of AN 1104 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with the same name components of UE 1102. In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, components of AN 1108 may perform various logical functions including, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling.

Fig. 12 is a block diagram illustrating components capable of reading instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and performing any one or more of the methods discussed herein, according to some example embodiments. In particular, FIG. 12 shows a diagrammatic representation of a hardware resource 1200 that includes one or more processors (or processor cores) 1210, one or more memory/storage devices 1220, and one or more communication resources 1230, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 1240. The hardware resources 1200 may be part of a UE, AN, or AN LMF. For embodiments that utilize node virtualization (e.g., NFV), the hypervisor 1202 can be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize hardware resources 1200.

Processor 1210 (e.g., 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 Digital Signal Processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, processor 1212 and processor 1214.

Memory/storage 1220 may include main memory, disk memory, or any suitable combination thereof. Memory/storage 1220 may include, but is not limited to, any type of volatile or non-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, and the like.

The communication resources 1230 may include interconnections or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 1204 or one or more databases 1206 via the network 1208. For example, the communication resources 1230 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, bluetooth components (e.g., bluetooth low energy), wi-Fi components, and other communication components.

The instructions 1250 may include software, programs, applications, applets, apps, or other executable code for causing at least any processor 1210 to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein. The instructions 1250 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processor 1210 (e.g., within a buffer memory of the processor), the memory/storage device 1220, or any suitable combination thereof. Further, any portion of instructions 1250 may be transferred from any combination of peripherals 1204 or databases 1206 to hardware resource 1200. Accordingly, processor 1210, memory/storage 1220, peripherals 1204, and the memory of database 1206 are examples of computer readable and machine readable media.

The following paragraphs describe examples of various embodiments.

Example 1 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) network function via the interface circuit to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); and processing the information in a unified data store (UDR), wherein the information includes a VPLMN ID associated with the VPLMN network function.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1, wherein the AF request comprises an nnef_serviceparameter_create request.

Example 3 includes the apparatus of example 1 or 2, wherein the processor circuit is further to: the information is stored in the UDR.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-3, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Update request.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 4, wherein the processor circuit is further to: updating the information in the UDR.

Example 6 includes the apparatus of any of examples 1-5, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef serviceparameter_delete request.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1 to 6, wherein the processor circuit is further to: deleting the information from the UDR.

Example 8 includes the apparatus of any of examples 1-7, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Get request.

Example 9 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-8, wherein the processor circuit is further to: and acquiring the information from the UDR.

Example 10 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-9, wherein the apparatus is adapted for Network Exposure Function (NEF).

Example 11 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: decoding User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs) information received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) via the interface circuit to obtain urs rules of the VPLMN; and encoding the URSP rule information for transmission to the UE, wherein the URSP rule information includes the URSP rule of the VPLMN and a VPLMN ID of the VPLMN.

Example 12 includes the apparatus of example 11, wherein the VPLMN ID is included in the urs rules of the VPLMN.

Example 13 includes the apparatus of example 11 or 12, wherein the VPLMN ID has a mapping relationship with a policy area index (PSI) associated with the urs rule.

Example 14 includes the apparatus of any of examples 11-13, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a home policy control function (H-PCF).

Example 15 includes an apparatus comprising: an interface circuit; and a processor circuit coupled with the interface circuit, wherein the processor circuit is to: analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) via the interface circuit to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); responsive to the AF request being associated with accessing a public land mobile network (VPLMN), checking whether service information has been authorized for the VPLMN; and responding to the NEF with an authorization result.

Example 16 includes the apparatus of example 15, wherein the AF request comprises a nudm_servicespecificauthentification_create request.

Example 17 includes the apparatus of example 15 or 16, wherein the apparatus is adapted for Universal Data Management (UDM).

Example 18 includes a method, comprising: analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) network function to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); and processing the information in a unified data store (UDR), wherein the information includes a VPLMN ID associated with the VPLMN network function.

Example 19 includes the method of example 18, wherein the AF request comprises an nnef_serviceparameter_create request.

Example 20 includes the method of example 18 or 19, wherein the processing comprises: the information is stored in the UDR.

Example 21 includes the method of any of examples 18-20, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Update request.

Example 22 includes the method of any of examples 18 to 21, wherein the processing includes: updating the information in the UDR.

Example 23 includes the method of any of examples 18 to 22, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef serviceparameter_delete request.

Example 24 includes the method of any of examples 18 to 23, wherein the processing includes: deleting the information from the UDR.

Example 25 includes the method of any of examples 18-24, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Get request.

Example 26 includes the method of any of examples 18 to 25, wherein the processing includes: and acquiring the information from the UDR.

Example 27 includes the method of any one of examples 18 to 26, wherein the method is applicable to a Network Exposure Function (NEF).

Example 28 includes a method, comprising: decoding User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs) information received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) to obtain urs rules for the VPLMN; and encoding the URSP rule information for transmission to the UE, wherein the URSP rule information includes the URSP rule of the VPLMN and a VPLMN ID of the VPLMN.

Example 29 includes the method of example 28, wherein the VPLMN ID is included in the urs rules of the VPLMN.

Example 30 includes the method of example 28 or 29, wherein the VPLMN ID has a mapping relationship with a policy area index (PSI) associated with the urs rule.

Example 31 includes the method of any one of examples 28-30, wherein the method is applicable to a home policy control function (H-PCF).

Example 32 includes a method, comprising: analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); responsive to the AF request being associated with accessing a public land mobile network (VPLMN), checking whether service information has been authorized for the VPLMN; and responding to the NEF with an authorization result.

Example 33 includes the method of example 32, wherein the AF request comprises a nudm_servicespecificauthentification_create request.

Example 34 includes the method of example 32 or 33, wherein the method is applicable to Unified Data Management (UDM).

Example 35 includes an apparatus comprising: means for analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) network function to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); and means for processing the information in a unified data store (UDR), wherein the information comprises a VPLMN ID associated with the VPLMN network function.

Example 36 includes the apparatus of example 35, wherein the AF request comprises an nnef_serviceparameter_create request.

Example 37 includes the apparatus of example 35 or 36, wherein the means for processing comprises: and means for storing said information in said UDR.

Example 38 includes the apparatus of any of examples 35-37, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Update request.

Example 39 includes the apparatus of any of examples 35-38, wherein the means for processing comprises: a component for updating said information in said UDR.

Example 40 includes the apparatus of any of examples 35-39, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef serviceparameter_delete request.

Example 41 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 35-40, wherein the means for processing comprises: and a component for deleting the information from the UDR.

Example 42 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 35-41, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Get request.

Example 43 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 35 to 42, wherein the means for processing comprises: and a component for acquiring the information from the UDR.

Example 44 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 35 to 43, wherein the apparatus is adapted for Network Exposure Function (NEF).

Example 45 includes an apparatus comprising: means for decoding User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs) information received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) to obtain urs rules of the VPLMN; and means for encoding the urs rule information for transmission to the UE, wherein the urs rule information includes the urs rules of the VPLMN and a VPLMN ID of the VPLMN.

Example 46 includes the apparatus of example 45, wherein the VPLMN ID is included in the urs rules of the VPLMN.

Example 47 includes the apparatus of example 45 or 46, wherein the VPLMN ID has a mapping relationship with a policy area index (PSI) associated with the urs rule.

Example 48 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 45-47, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a home policy control function (H-PCF).

Example 49 includes an apparatus comprising: means for analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); means for checking, in response to the AF request being associated with accessing a public land mobile network (VPLMN), whether service information has been authorized for the VPLMN; and means for responding to the NEF with an authorization result.

Example 50 includes the apparatus of example 49, wherein the AF request comprises a nudm_servicespecificauthentification_create request.

Example 51 includes the apparatus of example 49 or 50, wherein the apparatus is adapted for Universal Data Management (UDM).

Example 52 includes a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor circuit, cause the processor circuit to perform the method of any of examples 18 to 34.

Example 53 includes a Policy Control Function (PCF) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 54 includes a method performed at a Policy Control Function (PCF) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 55 includes a User Equipment (UE) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 56 includes a method performed at a User Equipment (UE) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 57 includes Unified Data Management (UDM) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 58 includes a method performed at Universal Data Management (UDM) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 59 includes a unified data store (UDR) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 60 includes a method performed at a unified data store (UDR) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 61 includes a Network Exposure Function (NEF) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 62 includes a method performed at a Network Exposure Function (NEF) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 63 includes an Application Function (AF) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Example 64 includes a method performed at an Application Function (AF) as described and illustrated in the specification.

Although certain embodiments have been illustrated and described herein for purposes of description, various alternative and/or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be substituted for the embodiments shown and described without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. This disclosure is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments discussed herein. Accordingly, it is readily understood that the embodiments described herein are limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled to the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is configured to:

analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) network function via the interface circuit to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN); and

The information is processed in a unified data store (UDR),

wherein the information includes a VPLMN ID associated with the VPLMN network function.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef serviceparameter_create request.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the processor circuit is further to: the information is stored in the UDR.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Update request.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the processor circuit is further to: updating the information in the UDR.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef serviceparameter_delete request.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the processor circuit is further to: deleting the information from the UDR.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the AF request comprises an Nnef ServiceParameter Get request.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the processor circuit is further to: and acquiring the information from the UDR.

10. The apparatus of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the apparatus is adapted for Network Exposure Function (NEF).

11. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled to the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is configured to:

decoding User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs) information received from a Visiting Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN) via the interface circuit to obtain urs rules of the VPLMN; and

encoding urs rule information for transmission to a UE, wherein the urs rule information includes the urs rules of the VPLMN and VPLMN IDs of the VPLMN.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the VPLMN ID is included in the urs rules of the VPLMN.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the VPLMN ID has a mapping relationship with a policy area index (PSI) associated with the urs rule.

14. The apparatus of any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the apparatus is adapted for a home policy control function (H-PCF).

15. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface circuit; and

a processor circuit coupled to the interface circuit,

wherein the processor circuit is configured to:

analyzing an Application Function (AF) request received from a Network Exposure Function (NEF) via the interface circuit to obtain information related to determining a User Equipment (UE) routing policy (urs p) in a Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN);

Responsive to the AF request being associated with accessing a public land mobile network (VPLMN), checking whether service information has been authorized for the VPLMN; and

responding to the NEF with an authorization result.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the AF request comprises a nudm_servicespecificauthentification_create request.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 or 16, wherein the apparatus is adapted for Unified Data Management (UDM).