Patent ID: 11882539
Assignee: T-MOBILE INNOVATIONS LLC
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A method of managing a plurality of associated network slices, comprising:
receiving, by a network slice registrar function (NSRF) application executing on a computer, the receiving from a network slice selection function (NSSF), information about a first network slice associated with a user equipment (UE), where the information about the first network slice comprises an identity of the UE and at least one parameter associated with the first network slice;
building a first genesis block of a first distributed ledger associated with the first network slice by the NSRF application, where the first genesis block stores the identity of the UE and the at least one parameter associated with the first network slice;
initiating the first distributed ledger by the NSRF application with the first genesis block;
receiving, by the NSRF application from the NSSF, information about a second network slice associated with the UE, where the information about the second network slice comprises the identity of the UE and at least one parameter associated with the second network slice;
building a second genesis block of a second distributed ledger associated with the second network slice by the NSRF application, where the second genesis block stores the identity of the UE and the at least one parameter associated with the second network slice;
initiating the second distributed ledger by the NSRF application with the second genesis block;
determining by the NSRF application that the first network slice is associated with the second network slice;
in response to determining that the first network slice is associated with the second network slice, building a third genesis block of a third distributed ledger by the NSRF application, where the third genesis block identifies the UE, the first network slice, and the second network slice;
monitoring events associated with the first network slice and with the second network slice by the NSRF application;
adding blocks to the first distributed ledger that record events associated with the first network slice by the NSRF application;
adding blocks to the second distributed ledger that record events associated with the second network slice by the NSRF application;
receiving a request to identify network slices associated with the UE by the NSRF application from an access and mobility management function (AMF);
in response to receiving the request to identify network slices associated with the UE, reading from the third distributed ledger by the NSRF application;
returning a reply by the NSRF application to the AMF, wherein the reply identifies the network slices associated with the UE, whereby the AMF is enabled to efficiently interwork with a user plane function (UPF) associated with the UE;
receiving a notification by the NSRF application from a network slice selection function (NSSF), where the notification indicates that the second network slice is terminated;
in response to receiving the notification, building a terminal block by the NSRF application; and
adding the terminal block by the NSRF application to the third distributed ledger, thereby closing the third distributed ledger from any further growth.