WO2017111781A1

WO2017111781A1 - Group-based eps bearer architecture

Info

Publication number: WO2017111781A1
Application number: PCT/US2015/000258
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ravikumar Balakrishnan; Mohammad Mamunur Rashid; Rath Vannithamby; Maruti Gupta
Original assignee: Intel Corporation
Priority date: 2015-12-23
Filing date: 2015-12-23
Publication date: 2017-06-29

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses for communicating in a cellular communications network, including provision of an Evolved Node B (eNB) comprising circuitry to: store a User Equipment (UE) group bearer mapping between: UE identifiers for identification by the eNB of individual UEs; and group bearer UE identifiers (GB-UEIDs) for identifying individual UEs over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group.

Description

GROUP-BASED EPS BEARER ARCHITECTURE

TECHNICAL FIELD

Configurations relate to wireless communications, and more particularly, to a group- based Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer architecture.

BACKGROUND

Ever greater demand is placed on telecommunication services, which are to accommodate increasingly more efficient and effective communication for increasing numbers of fixed and mobile devices.

Communication overhead is a critical factor in paving the way for efficiently supporting greater numbers of fixed and mobile devices, and it is therefore desirable to reduce communication overhead in a telecommunications network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Configurations described herein are illustrated, without limitation, by way of example, in the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 shows an example set of components in a telecommunications network associated with providing a group EPS bearer;

Fig. 2 shows an example of a group-based G-PDU packet format for communication over a group EPS bearer in respect of IP-based devices;

Fig. 3 shows an example of a group-based G-PDU packet format for communication over a group EPS bearer in respect of non-IP-based devices;

Fig. 4 shows an example of an attach procedure in respect of IP-based devices when group-based EPS bearer is implemented;

Fig. 5 shows an example of an attach procedure in respect of non-IP-based devices when group-based EPS bearer is implemented;

Fig. 6 shows an example of signaling flow for network-originated data for a UE in idle mode;

Fig. 7 shows an example of signaling flow for UE-originated data for a UE in idle mode;

Fig. 8 shows an example of a group-based EPS bearer architecture;

Fig. 9 shows an example method which may be employed for establishing an EPS bearer;

Fig. 10 shows an example method with may be employed for storing a group bearer mapping for an eNB;

Fig. 11 shows an example method which may be employed for processing a group- bearer G-PDU; and Fig. 12 shows an example system capable of implementing the configurations described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Illustrative configurations include, but are not limited to, methods, systems, and apparatuses for employing a group EPS bearer.

Various aspects of the illustrative configurations are described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that some alternate configurations may be practiced using with 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 configurations. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternate configurations may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order to not obscure the illustrative configurations.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative configurations; 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 terms "comprising," "having," and "including" are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrase "A/B" means "A or B". The phrase "A and/or B" means "(A), (B), or (A and B)". The phrase "at least one of A, B and C" means "(A), (B), (C), (A and B), (A and C), (B and C) or (A, B and C)". The phrase "(A) B" means "(B) or (A B)", that is, A is optional.

Although specific configurations have been illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that a wide variety of alternate and/or equivalent implementations may be substituted for the specific configurations shown and described. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the configurations discussed herein.

As used herein, the term "logic" and/or "circuitry" may refer to, be part of, or include an

Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) that execute one or more software or firmware instructions and/or programs, a combinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components that provide the described functionality. While the disclosed configurations are described with reference to a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, the configurations may be used with other types of wireless access networks.

The configurations described herein may be used in a variety of applications including transmitters and receivers of a radio system, although the present disclosure is not limited in this respect. Radio systems specifically included within the scope of the present disclosure include, but are not limited to, network interface cards (NICs), network adaptors, fixed or mobile client devices, relays, base stations, femtocells, gateways, bridges, hubs, routers, access points, or other network devices. Further, the radio systems within the scope of the disclosure may be implemented -in cellular radiotelephone systems, satellite systems, two-way radio systems as well as computing devices including such radio systems including personal computers (PCs), tablets and related peripherals, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal computing accessories, hand-held communication devices and all systems which may be related in nature and to which the principles of the inventive configurations could be suitably applied.

Fig. 1 depicts an example set of components employed in a telecommunications network associated with an Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer.

LTE telecommunication networks transport data over components of the network using bearers. A bearer of particular importance is the EPS bearer, over which data is transported between a User Equipment (UE) and a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) acting as an interface between the LTE network and other packet data networks such as the internet.

The EPS bearer is formed from three lower-level bearers: a data radio bearer (DRB) between the UE 102 and an Evolved Node B (eNB) 104, an SI bearer between the eNB 104 and Serving Gateway (S-GW) 106, and an S5/S8 bearer between the S-GW 106 and P-GW 108.

An EPS bearer is set up for each UE. As there is a communication overhead associated with setting up and maintaining an EPS bearer, as the number of UEs in a network increases, so too does the communication overhead. So much so that one of the fundamental concepts underscoring 5G communication, that of facilitating a so-called Internet of Things (IoT), a network of physical objects such as household appliances, parking meters or variable speed limit road signs, is rendered infeasible.

There is disclosed herein a group-based architecture for implementing the EPS bearers of UEs. Specifically, one or more UEs can be grouped together to form an EPS group, and a single group EPS bearer provides the EPS bearer for the UEs in the EPS group. As shown in Fig. 1, a data radio bearer is provided between the UE 102 and the eNB 104, a group SI bearer provides the SI bearer for the plurality of UEs, and a group S5/S8 bearer provides the S5/S8 bearer for the plurality of UEs. Although not shown in the diagram a group EPS bearer could instead comprise a group SI bearer or group S5/S8 bearer, as opposed to the combination shown.

The group EPS bearer may be employed for devices that are both IP capable and non- IP capable. In respect of non-IP capable devices, the P-GW does not assign an IP address to the device during the attach process. In the absence of IP addressing, a tunnel may be established between the P-GW and application server for transporting packets between the LTE network and the application server. This tunnel is external to the LTE network and may be associated with an external ID of the UE. An internal ID may be associated with the UE to distinguish data associated with different UEs over the tunnel.

By providing a single group EPS bearer for a plurality of UEs, the communication overhead associated with setting up and maintaining an EPS bearer for each UE is significantly reduced. Thus, in this way, the network infrastructure can be improved to help meet the demands of the IoT.

That said, there are several challenges that need to be resolved in employing such a group EPS bearer in an LTE network. These result, at least in part, from the problem of identifying a UE at the eNB and S-GW. Whereas a non-group-based EPS bearer architecture provides a one-to-one mapping between the data radio bearer, SI and S5/S8 bearers for a single UE, in the group-based architecture as single group SI and S5/S8 bearers are provided for multiple UEs, the one-to-one mapping is lost.

With further reference to Fig. 1, consider the case when a UE belonging to an EPS group goes into idle mode. When the S-GW receives the UE related downlink data over the S5/S8 group bearer, the S-GW is required to determine the destination UE which is to receive the downlink data. Now in a non-group-based EPS bearer architecture, when the mapping between the S5 Tunnel Endpoint ID (TEID) and the Sl-u TEID does not exist, the S-GW sends a downlink data notification to the Mobility Management Entity (MME) including the EPS Bearer ID corresponding to the S5 TEID. But in the group-based EPS architecture, the S-GW cannot identify the UE associated with the downlink data since multiple UEs map to the same S5 TEID. Without further architectural modification, the MME would have to send paging notifications corresponding to all the UEs associated with the group EPS bearer ID. All of the eNBs in each of the UEs tracking area (TA) would need to be paged to reach the UE. This would result in a significant increase in signaling load.

This problem arises from the S-GW lacking a mapping between a UE identifier employed by the S-GW and a UE identifier for identifying the UE over the group bearer.

A further challenge is that without further architectural modification, the eNB lacks a mapping between the Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) of a UE and a UE related ID for use over the group bearer. Accordingly, mapping between the SI group tunnel and DRBs is impossible. This must be considered in the light of the SI bearer being torn down when a UE enters idle mode, whereupon it can be later re-created, when a UE transitions from idle mode to connected mode, for example following paging.

It is therefore desirable to provide a mechanism to enable IP-based and non-IP based devices transitioning from idle mode to efficiently connect to an existing group S5/S8 bearer and/or group SI bearer with minimal impact on paging signaling load. It is also desirable to facilitate attachment of devices to existing group S5/S8 bearers and/or group SI bearers in respect of uplink data.

Thus architectural modification is disclosed herein that enables group EPS bearers to be employed whilst meeting some of the above-described challenges. Furthermore, the following may also be facilitated. A S-GW can identify the destination UEs in respect of a downlink packets in respect of multiple UEs received over the group S5/S8 bearer - and thus perform necessary downlink data notifications bringing any destination UEs in idle mode to connected mode, and can map between the group S5/S8 bearer and the appropriate group SI bearer; and an eNB can similarly identify destination UEs in respect of a downlink packet received over the group SI bearer thereby to map between the group SI bearer and the appropriate DRB in respect of downlink data for each UE. And simarly, in respect of uplink data, in such a way that the eNB can map between the DRB and the group SI bearer; and such that the S-GW can map between the group SI bearer and the group S5/S8 bearer.

Processing capability may be provided at the eNB and S-GW that help to identify the device packets and associate them with the group S5/S8 or SI bearers.

Figs. 2 and 3 depict a modified user data packet (T-PDU) plus GTP-U header (G-PDU) packet suitable for use over the group EPS bearer for IP-based and non-IP based devices respectively.

In non-group based EPS architecture, user plane data is communicated via transfer protocol data units T-PDUs. T-PDUs are encapsulated in G-PDUs which contain the T-PDUs and a GTP header.

Figs. 2 and 3 depict enhanced G-PDUs 200, 300, i.e. group bearer G-PDUs, suitable for use over the group EPS bearer architecture disclosed herein. For each T-PDU of a single G-PDU 200, 300, a preceding header is provided providing a destination UE identifier.

This destination UE identifier may be employed as a group bearer UE identifier (GB- UEID) in order to identify the destination UE associated with a specific T-PDU over the group EPS bearer, e.g. at the eNB 104 or S-GW 106 (or other network components such as those shown in Fig. 1).

In a group-based EPS bearer for non-IP devices, the P-GW and the eNB can, as it were, agree on an internal UE ID and use this UE ID in the T-PDU headers to distinguish data associated with different UEs. The P-GW can maintain a mapping between the internal UE ID and the external UE ID to properly route packets.

The following summarizes an example of how the GB-UEIDs may be employed during certain procedures by the telecommunications network, in order to resolve some of the above- described challenges.

During the attach procedure, the S-GW 106 stores the GB-UEID, which may be the IP address of the UE 102, that it receives via the Create Session Response message from the P- GW. This is mapped with a UE identifier usable by the S-GW 106 to identify the UE 102, e.g. the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) of the UE 102. The MME 105 includes the GB-UEID of the UE in the Initial Context Setup Request message sent to the eNB 104. The eNB

104 stores the GB-UEID received in the Initial Context Setup Request message (together with E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) parameters).

During a downlink procedure, and when there is a downlink packet at the S-GW 106 for a UE 102 in idle mode, the S-GW 106 can identify the destination UE 102 from the GB-UEID in the downlink packet. Specifically, the S-GW 106 can determine the GB-UEID of the T-PDUs within a group bearer G-PDU packet 200 received over the group S5/S8 bearer. The S-GW 106 can compare the GB-UEID with the stored GB-UEIDs, thereby to determine the identifier used by the S-GW 106, e.g. IMSI, for the individual UE 102. Following successful paging, the MME

105 can include the UE 102 GB-UEID (and the Group Bearer Related information) in the Initial Context Setup Request message issued to the appropriate eNB 104. The eNB 104 can store the

GB-UEID for determining the correct mapping of UE 102 packets between the group SI bearer and the DRB for the UE 102.

During an uplink procedure, and when the UE 102 is in idle mode, upon receiving the Service Request message, the MME 105 can include the GB-UEID and the Group Bearer releated information in the Initial Context Setup Request message issued to the appropriate eNB 104. The eNB 104 can store the GB-UEID for mapping future downlink data for the UE 102 between the group SI bearer and the corresponding DRB.

The above-summary of the procedure may be employed in respect of IP-based and non-IP based devices.

The group-based EPS bearer architecture disclosed herein facilitates the following.

There may be avoided the situation whereby a group of UEs are required to be unnecessarily paged in respect of downlink packets. eNBs can map beween group SI bearers and DRBs. eNBs can refresh the GB-UEIDs after the UE returns from idle mode. A mapping can be facilitated at the S-GW between group S5/S8 bearers and group SI bearers.

Turning once again to Fig. 1, the GB-UEID may be employed by a group bearer mapper

104c of the eNB 104 in order to map between the DRB and the group SI bearer. The GB-UEID may also be employed by the group bearer mapper 106c of the S-GW 106 in order to map between the group SI bearer and the group S5/S8 bearer. The group bearer mappers 104c and 106c may also be employed to map between the GB-UEID of a UE and a UE identifier employed to identify the UE by the eNB 104 and S-GW 106 respectively.

The attach procedure shall now be described in more detail in connection with Figs. 4 and 5, which respectively relate to the attachment of IP and non-IP based devices.

The group bearer mapper 106c at the S-GW 106 may be considered analogous to the GTP-U tunnel mapping performed at the S-GW 106 where the S5/S8 GTP-U tunnel from P-GW is mapped to a SI GTP-U tunnel at the S-GW 106. However, the group bearer mapper 106c, maps UE 102 packets from the group S5/S8 GTP-U tunnel to the SI GTP-U tunnel, which may also be another group tunnel. In addition, the S-GW 106 can employ the group bearer mapper 106c to facilitate the paging procedure for the UE when a DL packet for a particular UE arrives at the S-GW over a S5/S8 Group GTP-U tunnel.

During the attach procedure, the P-GW 108 can assign the GB-UEID, which may be in the form of an IP address in the case of IP based devices or an internal UE identifier in the case of non-IP based devices, of the UE, and the group bearer mappers 104c and 106c can store the GB-UEID of the UE. The group bearer mappers 104c and 106c can be employed to facilitate the handling of UE packets at the eNB 104 and the S-GW 106 when the UE is in ECM/RRC Idle mode.

As seen in Figs. 4 and 5, the S-GW 106 receives a Create Session Response message comprising a GB-UEID, which may be stored by the S-GW 106. The S-GW 106 can thus map a UE identifier usable be the S-GW 106 to identify the UE with the GB-UEID of the UE. Similarly, the eNB 104 receives an Initial Context Setup Request message comprising the GB-UEID, which may be stored by the eNB 104. The eNB 104 can thus map a UE identifier usable be the eNB 104 to identify the UE with the GB-UEID of the UE.

An example of the handling of downlink data communicated over a group EPS bearer will now be described in connection with Fig. 6.

When the UE is in ECM/RRC Idle mode, the UE-specific part of the group SI bearer is torn down and the eNB also removes the UE context. In the absence of the inclusion of the UE in the SI group bearer, the S-GW is not able to forward the incoming DL packet to the correct eNB and the UE. T erefore, the paging process is required to be initiated and the MME has to determine the correct UE to page. Upon receiving a DL packet for the UE at the P-GW 108, the P-GW 108 can map the downlink packet to the group S5/S8 bearer using the GB-UEID of the UE and the EPS Bearer Group ID provided by the MME during initial attach.

The S-GW 106 receives a group bearer GTP-U packet 200, 300 containing T-PDUs of one or more UEs in the EPS Bearer Group. Since the S-GW 106 does not have a DL Group SI eNB TEID corresponding to the UE, the S-GW 106 will not be able to identify the DL Group Sl- U tunnel to map the UE data. T erefore, the S-GW 106 can issue a DL Data Notification message to the MME 105 corresponding to that particular UE alone.

There is disclosed herein a procedure for the S-GW 106 to identify UE-specific T-PDUs and facilitate the MME 105 to issue paging messages corresponding to only that UE. The group bearer mapper 106c of the S-GW 106 will be able to decapsulate the UE specific T-PDU from the enhanced G-PDU 200, 300 received from the P-GW.

To achieve this, the S-GW 106 can compare the stored GB-UEIDs and the GB-UEID of the UE in the T-PDU. For a matching GB-UEID, the S-GW 106 can issue a DL Data Notification Message to the MME indicating the IMSI of the UE, and EPS-bearer ID. The group bearer G- PDU 200, 300 can contain the T-PDUs of each UEs. The S-GW 106 can compare the GB-UEIDs of the T-PDUs to identify a match for the UE packet.

From the GB-UEID, the S-GW can determine the IMSI of the UE. It can buffer the UE packets and issues a Downlink Data Notification message to the MME to inform signaling connections and bearers required to be established for the UE.

The MME 105 can send a Paging message to all the eNodeBs in the tracking area the UE was in last time. In turn, the eNBs can broadcast the received Paging message during their paging occasions.

Upon successfully receiving the Paging message, the UE can send a Service Request message to establish ECM connection following the RRC procedures

If the UE can be added to an existing Sl-U Group Bearer using its EPS Bearer Group ID, the MME 105 can send a Sl-AP Initial Context Setup Request message to the eNodeB 104 including the UL TEID, Quality of Service (QoS) of the Group SI bearer and the GB-UEID. If not, the MME can create a new Sl-U UL TEID and send it to the eNodeB along with the GB- UEID in the Initial Context Setup Request message.

In addition, for the eNB 104 to identify the UE associated with a T-PDU, a group bearer mapper 104c can be provided in the eNB 104 to obtain the GB-UEID from the T-PDU and thus determine the associated UE identifier usable be the eNB 104 to identify the individual UE to which the T-PDU is to be communicated. The group bearer mapper 104c of the eNB 104 can thus map the UE packets over the Group Sl-U bearer with the Data Radio Bearer.

The eNB 104 can perform the radio bearer establishment procedure and user plane security can be established.

After this, the eNB 104 can maintain a mapping between the C-RNTI of the UE and its GB-UEID to perform the mapping between the Group Sl-U bearer and DRB.

The eNB 104 can send an Sl-AP Initial Context Setup Response including the DL Group

Sl-U TEID. T e MME 105 can send a Modify Bearer Request message including the DL Group Sl-U TEID to the S-GW 106.

Once the S-GW 106 has the correct DL Group Sl-U TEID, it can respond with a Modify Bearer Response after which packet data can be forwarded to the UE over the established EPS bearer.

An example of the modified architecture suitable for providing the group bearer functionality described herein is depicted in Fig. 8. Additional processing capability for providing the group bearer architecture disclosed herein can be provided at the S-GW 106 and the eNB 104. For example, at the S-GW 106, a group bearer mapper 106c can map the packets between S5/S8 bearer and Sl-U bearer. At the eNB 104, a group bearer mapper 104c can map packets between DRB and Sl-U bearer. The group bearer mappers 104c and 106c can store the IP address of the UE and maintain a one-to-one mapping between the GB-UEID and identifiers used by the eNB 104 and S-GW 106 to identify the UE.

An example of the handling of UE originated data in the case that the UE is in idle mode shall now be described in connection with Fig. 7.

When the UE 102 has uplink data to send in the ECM/RRC Idle mode, it can issue a Service Request message to establish an ECM connection. This can be achieved using the RRC Connection procedure.

When the MME 105 receives the Service Request message, it can identify that the UE device belongs to an EPS bearer group and can determine if an existing Group SI bearer can be utilized for UE data.

The MME 105 can send an Initial Context Setup Request message containing the information required by the eNB 104 to setup the E-RAB including the UL Group SI S-GW TEID, E-RAB ID,AS security context and also the GB-UEID of the UE.

For the case of UL data, it is sufficient that the eNB 104 creates a mapping between the

UE identifier usable be the eNB 104 to identify the UE, e.g. C-RNTI, and the Group SI bearer. However, for the case of DL traffic, the eNB 104 will have to utilize this GB-UEID to perform a mapping between the UE T-PDUs received over the SI bearer to the DRB of the UE.

The eNB 104 can use the information in the Initial Context Setup Request to setup a DRB. In addition, it can also allocate or reuse an existing DL Group SI TEID for the SI bearer (if the MME 105 indicates an existing Group SI bearer) and can forward this information to the MME 105 in the Initial Context Setup Response message.

The MME 105 can deliver the DL Group SI eNB TEID to the S-GW 106 in the Modify Bearer Request message. Having received a G-PDU over the group S5/S8 bearer from the P-GW, the S-GW may repackage the G-PDU prior to sending the G-PDU to the eNB over the group SI bearer based on the UE devices that are presently attached to the group SI bearer.

The eNB 104 and/or S-GW 106 may be provided with memory, and processing circuitry to store, by recording in memory, a UE group bearer mapping. Thus in this way a UE group bearer mapping can be maintained.

Configurations described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. Fig. 12 illustrates example components of an electronic device 1200. In certain configurations, the electronic device 1200 may be, implement, be incorporated into, or otherwise be a part of a UE, an eNB, an ME, S-GW, P-GW, or some other device.

In some configurations, the electronic device 1200 may include application circuitry 1202, baseband circuitry 1204, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 1206, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 1208 and one or more antennas 1210, coupled together at least as shown.

T e application circuitry 1202 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 1202 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with and/or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications and/or operating systems to run on the system.

The baseband circuitry 1204 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 1204 may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1206 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 1206. Baseband processing circuity 1204 may interface with the application circuitry 1202 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 1206. For example, in some configurations, the baseband circuitry 1204 may include a second generation (2G) baseband processor 1204a, third generation (3G) baseband processor 1204b, fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 1204c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 1204d for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (5G), 6G, etc.). The baseband circuitry 1204 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 1204a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 1206. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some configurations, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 1204 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some configurations, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 104 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Configurations of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other configurations.

In some configurations, the baseband circuitry 1204 may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 1204e of the baseband circuitry 1204 may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. In some configurations, the baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 1204f. T e audio DSP(s) 1204f may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other configurations.

The baseband circuitry 1204 may further include memory/storage 1204g. The memory/storage 1204g may be used to load and provide storage for data and/or instructions for operations performed by the processors of the baseband circuitry 1204. Memory/storage for one configuration may include any combination of suitable volatile memory and/or non^¬ volatile memory. The memory/storage 1204g may include any combination of various levels of memory/storage including, but not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) having embedded software instructions (e.g., firmware), random access memory (e.g., dynamic random access memory (DRAM)), cache, buffers, etc. The memory/storage 104g may be shared among the various processors or dedicated to particular processors.

Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some configurations. In some configurations, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 104 and the application circuitry 102 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some configurations, the baseband circuitry 1204 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some configurations, the baseband circuitry 1204 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Configurations in which the baseband circuitry 104 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 1206 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various configurations, the RF circuitry 1206 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 1206 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1208 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 1204. RF circuitry 1206 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 1204 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 1208 for transmission.

In some configurations, the RF circuitry 1206 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry 1206 may include mixer circuitry 106a, amplifier circuitry 1206b and filter circuitry 1206c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 106 may include filter circuitry 1206c and mixer circuitry 1206a. RF circuitry 106 may also include synthesizer circuitry 1206d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some configurations, the mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down- convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 1208 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 106d. T e amplifier circuitry 1206b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 1206c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 1204 for further processing. In some configurations, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some configurations, mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the configurations is not limited in this respect.

In some configurations, the mixer circuitry 1206a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 1206d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 1208. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 1204 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 1206c. The filter circuitry 1206c may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the configurations is not limited in this respect.

In some configurations, the mixer circuitry 106a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively. In some configurations, the mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some configurations, the mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1206a may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. In some configurations, the mixer circuitry 1206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 1206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

In some configurations, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the configurations is not limited in this respect. In some alternate configurations, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate configurations, the RF circuitry 1206 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 1204 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 1206.

In some dual-mode configurations, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the configurations is not limited in this respect.

In some configurations, the synthesizer circuitry 1206d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the configurations is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 1206d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 1206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 1206a of the RF circuitry 1206 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some configurations, the synthesizer circuitry 1206d may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

In some configurations, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 1204 or the applications processor 1202 depending on the desired output frequency. In some configurations, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 1202.

Synthesizer circuitry 1206d of the RF circuitry 1206 may include a divider, a delay- locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some configurations, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some configurations, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example configurations, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these configurations, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some configurations, synthesizer circuitry 1206d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other configurations, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some configurations, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some configurations, the RF circuitry 1206 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 1208 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 1210, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 1206 for further processing. FEM circuitry 1208 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 106 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 1210.

In some configurations, the FEM circuitry 1208 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low-noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 1206). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 1208 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 1206), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 1210.

In some configurations, the electronic device 1200 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface.

In configurations wherein the electronic device 1200 is, implements, is incorporated into, or is otherwise part of an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), the baseband circuitry 1204 may be to identify one or more parameters related to a TDD uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration in one radio frame and/or subframe of a fifth generation (5G) time division duplex (TDD) network; and the RF circuitry 1206 may be to transmit a downlink control information (DCI) format or a physical TDD configuration indicator channel (PTCICH) transmission in accordance with the one or more parameters.

In configurations where the electronic device 1200 is, implements, is incorporated into, or is otherwise part of a user equipment (UE), the RF circuitry 1206 may be to receive a downlink control information (DCI) format and/or a physical TDD configuration indicator channel (PTCICH) transmission from an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) in a fifth generation (5G) time division duplex (TDD) cellular network; and the baseband circuitry 1204 may be to process the DCI format and/or PTCICH transmission in accordance with one or more parameters related to a TDD uplink (UL)/downlink (DL) configuration in one radio frame and/or subframe.

The electronic device 1200 of Fig. 12 may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof.

Referring to Fig. 1, the UE 102, eNB 104, S-GW 106, and/or P-GW 108 may also be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. For example, the processors of each component may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, and/or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. Reception and transmission may be facilitated via receiving and transmission circuitry. Figs. 9 to 11 depict examples of methods that may be implemented as part of the group based bearer architecture described herein.

The group EPS bearer architecture disclosed above mostly employs a group SI bearer in combination with a group S5/S8 bearer. However, either a group SI or group S5/S8 bearer can be employed in isolation, whilst facilitating reduced communication overhead. Thus the SI bearers can be grouped to provide a group SI bearer and/or the S5/S8 bearers can be grouped to provide a group S5/S8 bearer. T e eNB and S-GW group bearer mapping can then be employed to map between the group and non-group bearers on either side of the EPS bearer path depicted in Fig. 1.

Configurations can be realized according to the following clauses.

Clause 1. An Evolved Node B (eNB) for use in a cellular communications network, the eNB comprising circuitry to:

store a User Equipment (UE) group bearer mapping between:

UE identifiers for identification by the eNB of individual UEs; and group bearer UE identifiers (GB-UEIDs) for identifying individual UEs over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group.

Clause 2. The eNB according to Clause 1, the circuitry to: receive from a Mobility Management Entity (MME) an Initial Context Setup Request message relating to an attach request of an attaching UE;

decode from the Initial Context Setup Request message a GB-UEID of the attaching UE; and

update the UE group bearer mapping with the UE identifier and the GB-UEID of the attaching UE.

Clause 3. The eNB according to Clause 1 or Clause 2, the circuitry to:

receive over a group SI bearer of the group EPS bearer between the eNB and a Serving Gateway (S-GW) a group bearer G-PDU comprising a plurality of Transfer Protocol Data Units

(T-PDUs) associated with GB-UEIDs for one or more UEs in the EPS bearer group; and

determine the UE identifiers of the UEs to which the T-PDUs are to be communicated based on the UE group bearer mapping.

Clause 4. The eNB according to Clause 3, the circuitry to:

send the T-PDUs to the UEs to which the T-PDUs are to be communicated over Data

Radio Bearers (DRBs) between the eNB and the UEs to which the T-PDUs are to be communicated.

Clause 5. The eNB according to any preceding Clause, wherein:

the GB-UEIDs are IP addresses.

Clause 6. A Serving Gateway (S-GW) for use in a cellular communications network, the S- GW comprising circuitry to:

store a User Equipment (UE) group bearer mapping between:

UE identifiers for identification by the S-GW of individual UEs; and group bearer UE identifiers (GB-UEIDs) for identifying individual UEs over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group.

Clause 7. The S-GW according to Clause 6, the circuitry to:

receive from a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) a Create Session Response message relating to an attach request of a UE;

decode from the a Create Session Response message a GB-UEID of the attaching UE; and

Clause 8. The S-GW according to Clause 6 or Clause 7, the circuitry to:

receive over a group S5/S8 bearer of the group EPS bearer between the S-GW and a

Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) a group bearer G-PDU comprising a plurality of Transfer Protocol Data Units (T-PDUs) associated with GB-UEIDs for one or more UEs in the EPS bearer group; and

Clause 9. T e S-GW according to Clause 8, the circuitry to:

send a downlink data notification to a Mobility Management Entity (MME) comprising the UE identifiers of the UEs to which the T-PDUs are to be communicated.

Clause 10. The S-GW according to Clause 8 or Clause 9, the circuitry to:

send the G-PDU to an Evolved Node B (eNB) over a group SI bearer of the group EPS bearer between the S-GW and the eNB.

Clause 11. The S-GW according to any one of clauses 6 to 10, wherein:

the GB-UEIDs are IP addresses.

Clause 12. A Mobility Management Entity (MME) for use in a cellular communications network, the MME comprising circuitry to:

transmit to an Evolved Node B (eNB) an Initial Context Setup Request message in response to receiving from a requesting User Equipment (UE) an attach request or a service request, wherein:

the Initial Context Setup Request message comprises a group bearer UE identifier (GB-UEID) for identifying the requesting UE over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group including the requesting UE.

Clause 13. The MME according to Clause 12, the circuitry to:

detect when a UE included within the EPS bearer group has transitioned into the RRC idle state, and thereupon:

transmit a control signal to a Serving Gateway (S-GW) specifying that the idle UE is to be removed from the group SI bearer of the group EPS.

Clause 14. The MME according to Clause 12 or Clause 13, the circuitry to:

receive a downlink data notification message from a S-GW in respect of a target UE included within the EPS bearer group;

decode from the downlink data notification a UE identifier for identification by the MME of the target UE; and

page the eNBs in the tracking area of the target UE.

Clause 15. A method of establishing an Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer for a User Equipment (UE) in a cellular communications network, the method comprising: allocate the UE to a group EPS bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group;

sending from a Mobility Management Entity (MME) to a Serving Gateway (S-GW) a create session request message for the S-GW;

sending from the S-GW to a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) a a create session request message for the P-GW;

sending from the P-GW to the S-GW a create session response message for the S-GW, wherein the create session response message comprises a group bearer UE identifier (GB- UEID) for identifying the UE over the group EPS bearer; and

storing at the S-GW a UE group bearer mapping between:

a UE identifier used by the S-GW to identify the UE; and

the GB-UEID.

Clause 16. The method according to Clause 15, comprising:

sending from the S-GW to the MME a create session response message for the MME, wherein the create session response message comprises the GB-UEID;

sending from the MME to an Evolved Node B (eNB) an initial context setup request message, wherein the initial context setup request message comprises the GB-UEID; and

storing at the eNB a UE group bearer mapping between:

a UE identifier used by the eNB to identify the UE; and

the GB-UEID.

Clause 17. The method according to Clause 15 or Clause 16, wherein:

the GB-UEID is an IP address.

Clause 18. A method of handling at a network node a group bearer G-PDU communicated over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer shared by a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) in an EPS bearer group, the method comprising:

receiving the G-PDU, the G-PDU comprising a plurality of Transfer Packet Data Units (T- PDUs) having associated destination group bearer UE identifiers (GB-UEIDs);

determining the destination UEs for each T-PDU by consulting a mapping between:

UE identifiers for identification by the network node of individual UEs; and group bearer UE identifiers (GB-UEIDs) for identifying individual UEs over the group EPS bearer.

Clause 19. The method according to Clause 18, wherein the network node is a Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the G-PDU is communicated from a Packet Data Network Gateway (P- GW) to the S-GW over a group S5/S8 bearer forming part of the group EPS bearer.

Clause 20. T e method according to Clause 19, comprising: sending from the S-GW to a Mobility Management Entity (MME) a downlink data notification comprising UE identifiers of the destination UEs, the UE identifiers being usable by the MME to identify individual UEs; and

in respect of each destination UE, paging Evolved Node Bs (eNBs) in the tracking area of the destination UE.

Clause 21. The method of Clause 19 or Clause 20, comprising:

determining the group SI bearer forming part of the group EPS bearer from the G-PDU; and

sending the G-PDU from the S-GW to an eNB over the group SI bearer.

Clause 22. The method according to any one of Clauses 18 to 21, wherein:

the GB-UEIDs are IP addresses.

Clause 23. A computer readable medium comprising computer program instructions that when executed on a processor perform the method according to any one of Clauses 15 to 22.

The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of the disclosure to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various implementations of the disclosure.

Claims

1. An Evolved Node B (eNB) for use in a cellular communications network, the eNB comprising circuitry to:

store a User Equipment (UE) group bearer mapping between:

2. T e eNB according to claim 1, the circuitry to:

receive from a Mobility Management Entity (MME) an Initial Context Setup Request message relating to an attach request of an attaching UE;

3. The eNB according to claim 1, the circuitry to:

receive over a group SI bearer of the group EPS bearer between the eNB and a Serving Gateway (S-GW) a group bearer G-PDU comprising a plurality of Transfer Protocol Data Units (T-PDUs) associated with GB-UEIDs for one or more UEs in the EPS bearer group; and

4. The eNB according to claim 3, the circuitry to:

send the T-PDUs to the UEs to which the T-PDUs are to be communicated over Data Radio Bearers (DRBs) between the eNB and the UEs to which the T-PDUs are to be communicated.

5. The eNB according to any preceding claim, wherein:

the GB-UEIDs are IP addresses.

6. A Serving Gateway (S-GW) for use in a cellular communications network, the S-GW comprising circuitry to:

store a User Equipment (UE) group bearer mapping between:

7. The S-GW according to claim 6, the circuitry to: receive from a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) a Create Session Response message relating to an attach request of a UE;

8. The S-GW according to claim 6, the circuitry to:

receive over a group S5/S8 bearer of the group EPS bearer between the S-GW and a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) a group bearer G-PDU comprising a plurality of Transfer Protocol Data Units (T-PDUs) associated with GB-UEIDs for one or more UEs in the EPS bearer group; and

9. T e S-GW according to claim 8, the circuitry to:

10. T e S-GW according to claim 8, the circuitry to:

11. The S-GW according to any one of claims 6 to 10, wherein:

the GB-UEIDs are IP addresses.

12. A Mobility Management Entity (MME) for use in a cellular communications network, the MME comprising circuitry to:

the Initial Context Setup Request message comprises a group bearer UE identifier (GB-UEID) for identifying the requesting UE over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group i ncl ud i ng the requesti ng U E .

13. The MME according to claim 12, the circuitry to:

14. The ME according to claim 12 or 13, the circuitry to:

receive a downlink data notification message from a S^GW in respect of a target UE included within the EPS bearer group;

page the eNBs in the tracking area of the target UE.

15. A method of establishing an Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer for a User Equipment (UE) in a cellular communications network, the method comprising:

allocate the UE to a group EPS bearer providing a single EPS bearer to be shared by a plurality of UEs forming an EPS bearer group;

storing at the S-GW a UE group bearer mapping between:

a UE identifier used by the S-GW to identify the UE; and

the GB-UEID.

16. The method according to claim 15, comprising:

storing at the eNB a UE group bearer mapping between:

a UE identifier used by the eNB to identify the UE; and

the GB-UEID.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein:

the GB-UEID is an IP address.

18. A method of handling at a network node a group bearer G-PDU communicated over a group Evolved Packet System (EPS) bearer shared by a plurality of User Equipments (UEs) in an EPS bearer group, the method comprising:

determining the destination UEs for each T-PDU by consulting a mapping between: UE identifiers for identification by the network node of individual UEs; and group bearer UE identifiers (GB-UEIDs) for identifying individual UEs over the group EPS bearer.

19. . The method according to claim 18, wherein the network node is a Serving Gateway (S- GW) and the G-PDU is communicated from a Packet Data Network Gateway (P-GW) to the S-

GW over a group S5/S8 bearer forming part of the group EPS bearer.

20. The method according to claim 19, comprising:

sending from the S-GW to a Mobility Management Entity (MME) a downlink data notification comprising UE identifiers of the destination UEs, the UE identifiers being usable by the MME to identify individual UEs; and

21. T e method of claim 19, comprising:

sending the G-PDU from the S-GW to an eNB over the group SI bearer.

22. T e method according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein:

the GB-UEIDs are IP addresses.

23. A computer readable medium comprising computer program instructions that when executed on a processor perform the method according to any one of claims 15 to 22.