Patent ID: 11930392
Assignee: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OY
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 7:
8. A method, comprising:
configuring, by a user plane node of a mobile communication system, a quality-of-service flow within a packet data unit session in the mobile communication system by using a quality-of-service profile of deterministic communication based on setting information of the quality-of-service profile of deterministic communication, in which minimum required latency and maximum allowed latency for delivery of user plane data packets are defined,
said quality-of-service flow being for delivery of user plane data packets including data of a time-sensitive communication system,
receiving, by the user plane node from a previous user plane node of the mobile communication system, a user plane data packet in the configured quality-of-service flow within the packet data unit session, and
processing, by the user plane node, the received user plane data packet in accordance with the quality-of-service profile of deterministic communication by using a delivery-related parameter in the user plane data packet, said delivery-related parameter being indicative of a time attribute of the user plane data packet,
wherein the processing comprises:
calculating, by the user plane node, an ingress time value of the user plane data packet on the basis of a counter value in the user plane data packet and predefined periodicity and offset values for the delivery of user plane data packets including data of the time-sensitive communication system,
wherein the delivery-related parameter comprises the counter value,
calculating, by the user plane node, a current packet delay representing a difference between a current time and a reference time with respect the ingress time value of the user plane data packet,
when the calculated current packet delay is smaller than the defined maximum allowed latency:
forwarding, by the user plane node, the user plane data packet, without changing the counter value, to a next user plane node in the mobile communication system towards a session downstream side; or,
buffering, by the user plane node, the user plane data packet for a buffering time representing a difference between the defined minimum required latency and the current time, if the calculated current packet delay is smaller than the defined minimum required latency, and
forwarding, by the user plane node, the user plane data packet to an egress node of the time-sensitive communication system; and

when the calculated current packet delay is equal to or larger than the defined maximum allowed latency: discarding the user plane data packet.