Patent Publication Number: US-2023163984-A1

Title: User equipment (ue) route selection policy (usrp) ue in an evolved packet system (eps)

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     The present application claims priority to International Patent Application No. PCT/CN2022/071781, which was filed Jan. 13, 2022; the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. For example, some embodiments may relate to provisioning the user equipment (UE) route selection policy (USRP) in an evolved packet system (EPS). Specifically, embodiments may relate to provisioning the USRP to a UE when interworking with a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS). 
     BACKGROUND 
     Various embodiments generally may relate to the field of wireless communications. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    depicts an example non-roaming interworking architecture, in accordance with varius embodiments. 
         FIG.  2    illustrates a network, in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG.  3    schematically illustrates a wireless network, in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG.  4    is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
         FIG.  5    depicts an alternative example network, in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG.  6    depicts an example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein. 
         FIG.  7    depicts an alternative example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein. 
         FIG.  8    depicts an alternative example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein. 
         FIG.  9    depicts an alternative example procedure for practicing the various embodiments discussed herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrase “A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). 
     In the interworking scenario between the evolved packet system (EPS) and the fifth generation (5G) system (5GS), a user equipment (UE) may first register to the 5GS and be provisioned with a UE route selection policy (URSP) in 5GS. If the UE then moves to an EPS, some Route Selection component (e.g., data network name (DNN) Selection) in the URSP rule may be used by the UE to derive the access point nam.e (APN) in EPS. 
     In the legacy design of EPS, if the URSP is subsequently changed, there may not be a way to update the URSP in the UE unless the UE moves back to 5GS. As a consequence, the UE may use the outdated URSP to derive the wrong DNN and APN. 
     Embodiments herein may relate to the third generation partnership project (3GPP) release-18 (Rel-18) SID FS_eUEPO, which may relate to resolving the above issue. Specifically, embodiments may provide a solution to provision the latest URSP to a UE in EPS. In order to minimize the impact to the mobility management entity (MME), an extended protocol configuration option (ePCO) may be used to carry the URSP between the packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) and the UE. 
     In order to support the non-session management functionality (as may be defined, for example, in clause 6.2.1.1.2 of the third generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specification (TS) 23.503) for a UE-policy and charging function (PCF), the PCF (e.g., as shown in  FIGS.  1 ,  2 , or  5   ), PGW-C (e.g., as shown in  FIG.  1   ), and/or the policy and charging rules function (PCRF) (e.g., as shown in  FIG.  2   ) may need to be enhanced with following functionality:
     UE policy information control (as described in clause 6.1.2.2 of TS 23.503).   

     The 3GPP specifications, and particularly 3GPP TS 23.503 or some other TS, may be updated. Specifically, UE Policy may be defined in TS 23.503. The updates may be as follows: 
     6.1.1 UE Triggered UE Policy Provisioning Procedure 
     1. The UE reports the UE Policy Container including the PSIs (Policy Set Identifier) and UE Policy (i.e. URSP, ANDSP) Support/Request indication in PCO (Protocol Configuration Option) or ePCO (extended PCO) to PDN GW during Initial Attach procedure (in the Attach Request) as described in clause 5.3.2.1 of TS 23.401 and UE requested PDN connectivity procedure (PDN Connectivity Request) as described in clause 5.10.2 of TS 23.401. 
     2. When the PGW-C receives the UE Policy Container, it establishes UE Policy Association with PCF or PCRF and forwards the UE Policy Container to PCF or PCRF. If a UE Policy Container is not received from UE, the PGW-C may establish UE Policy Association with PCF or PCRF based on PGW-C local configuration. 
     3. The PCF or PCRF gets policy subscription related information and the latest list of PSIs from the UDR. The PCF or PCRF creates the UE policy container including UE policy information as defined in clause 6.6 of TS 23.503. Then it sends the latest UE policy information in the UE Policy Container to PGW-C. 
     4. The PGW-C sends the UE Policy Container in PCO or ePCO to UE in Attach Accept or PDN Connectivity Accept. 
     6.1.2 PCF or PCRF Triggered UE Policy Provisioning Procedure 
     1. When the PCF or PCRF recognizes the UE Policy is updated, it triggers the UE Policy update procedure towards the PGW-C. 
     2. The PGW-C provides the updated UE Policy to UE in UE Policy Container via PCO or ePCO, this can be achieved by using new message or reusing existing message (e.g. Update Bear Request) as defined in clause 5.4.3 of TS 23.401. 
     3. When the UE receives the updated UE Policy, it enforces the update UE Policy and sends a response to PGW-C on acknowledging the reception of the UE Policy. 
     4. the PGW-C forwards the ACK of UE reception of the UE Policy to PCF or PCRF. 
     In the deployment, the PCRF or PCF may be collocated in PGW-C, thus the interaction between PGW-C and PCF/PCRF may not be needed for the procedures in clause 6.1.1 and 6.1.2. 
     Systems and Implementations 
       FIGS.  2 - 4    illustrate various systems, devices, and components that may implement aspects of disclosed embodiments. 
       FIG.  2    illustrates a network  200  in accordance with various embodiments. The network  200  may operate in a manner consistent with 3GPP technical specifications for LTE or 5G/NR systems. However, the example embodiments are not limited in this regard and the described embodiments may apply to other networks that benefit from the principles described herein, such as future 3GPP systems, or the like. 
     The network  200  may include a UE  202 , which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN  204  via an over-the-air connection. The UE  202  may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, IoT device, etc. 
     In some embodiments, the network  200  may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc. 
     In some embodiments, the UE  202  may additionally communicate with an AP  206  via an over-the-air connection. The AP  206  may manage a WLAN connection, which may serve to offload some/all network traffic from the RAN  204 . The connection between the UE  202  and the AP  206  may be consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP  206  could be a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In some embodiments, the UE  202 , RAN  204 , and AP  206  may utilize cellular-WLAN aggregation (for example, LWA/LWIP). Cellular-WLAN aggregation may involve the UE  202  being configured by the RAN  204  to utilize both cellular radio resources and WLAN resources. 
     The RAN  204  may include one or more access nodes, for example, AN  208 . AN  208  may terminate air-interface protocols for the UE  202  by providing access stratum protocols including RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC, and L1 protocols. In this manner, the AN  208  may enable data/voice connectivity between CN  220  and the UE  202 . In some embodiments, the AN  208  may be implemented in a discrete device or as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of, for example, a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN or virtual baseband unit pool. The AN  208  be referred to as a BS, gNB, RAN node, eNB, ng-eNB, NodeB, RSU, TRxP, TRP, etc. The AN  208  may be a macrocell base station or a low power base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells. 
     In embodiments in which the RAN  204  includes a plurality of ANs, they may be coupled with one another via an X2 interface (if the RAN  204  is an LTE RAN) or an Xn interface (if the RAN  204  is a 5G RAN). The X2/Xn interfaces, which may be separated into control/user plane interfaces in some embodiments, may allow the ANs to communicate information related to handovers, data/context transfers, mobility, load management, interference coordination, etc. 
     The ANs of the RAN  204  may each manage one or more cells, cell groups, component carriers, etc. to provide the UE  202  with an air interface for network access. The UE  202  may be simultaneously connected with a plurality of cells provided by the same or different ANs of the RAN  204 . For example, the UE  202  and RAN  204  may use carrier aggregation to allow the UE  202  to connect with a plurality of component carriers, each corresponding to a Pcell or Scell. In dual connectivity scenarios, a first AN may be a master node that provides an MCG and a second AN may be secondary node that provides an SCG. The first/second ANs may be any combination of eNB, gNB, ng-eNB, etc. 
     The RAN  204  may provide the air interface over a licensed spectrum or an unlicensed spectrum. To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may use LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms based on CA technology with PCells/Scells. Prior to accessing the unlicensed spectrum, the nodes may perform medium/carrier-sensing operations based on, for example, a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. 
     In V2X scenarios the UE  202  or AN  208  may be or act as a RSU, which may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable AN or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE. An RSU implemented in or by: a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU”; an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU”; a gNB may be referred to as a “gNB-type RSU”; and the like. In one example, an RSU is a computing device coupled with radio frequency circuitry located on a roadside that provides connectivity support to passing vehicle UEs. The RSU may also include internal data storage circuitry to store intersection map geometry, traffic statistics, media, as well as applications/software to sense and control ongoing vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The RSU may provide very low latency communications required for high speed events, such as crash avoidance, traffic warnings, and the like. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may provide other cellular/WLAN communications services. The components of the RSU may be packaged in a weatherproof enclosure suitable for outdoor installation, and may include a network interface controller to provide a wired connection (e.g., Ethernet) to a traffic signal controller or a backhaul network. 
     In some embodiments, the RAN  204  may be an LTE RAN  210  with eNBs, for example, eNB  212 . The LTE RAN  210  may provide an LTE air interface with the following characteristics: SCS of 15 kHz; CP-OFDM waveform for DL and SC-FDMA waveform for UL; turbo codes for data and TBCC for control; etc. The LTE air interface may rely on CSI-RS for CSI acquisition and beam management; PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS for PDSCH/PDCCH demodulation; and CRS for cell search and initial acquisition, channel quality measurements, and channel estimation for coherent demodulation/detection at the UE. The LTE air interface may operating on sub-6 GHz bands. 
     In some embodiments, the RAN  204  may be an NG-RAN  214  with gNBs, for example, gNB  216 , or ng-eNBs, for example, ng-eNB  218 . The gNB  216  may connect with SG-enabled UEs using a 5G NR interface. The gNB  216  may connect with a 5G core through an NG interface, which may include an N2 interface or an N3 interface. The ng-eNB  218  may also connect with the 5G core through an NG interface, but may connect with a UE via an LTE air interface. The gNB  216  and the ng-eNB  218  may connect with each other over an Xn interface. 
     In some embodiments, the NG interface may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface, which carries traffic data between the nodes of the NG-RAN  214  and a UPF  248  (e.g., N3 interface), and an NG control plane (NG-C) interface, which is a signaling interface between the nodes of the NG-RAN214 and an AMF  244  (e.g., N2 interface). 
     The NG-RAN  214  may provide a 5G-NR air interface with the following characteristics: variable SCS; CP-OFDM for DL, CP-OFDM and DFT-s-OFDM for UL; polar, repetition, simplex, and Reed-Muller codes for control and LDPC for data. The 5G-NR air interface may rely on CSI-RS, PDSCH/PDCCH DMRS similar to the LTE air interface. The 5G-NR air interface may not use a CRS, but may use PBCH DMRS for PBCH demodulation; PTRS for phase tracking for PDSCH; and tracking reference signal for time tracking. The 5G-NR air interface may operating on FR1 bands that include sub-6 GHz bands or FR2 bands that include bands from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz. The 5G-NR air interface may include an SSB that is an area of a downlink resource grid that includes PSS/SSS/PBCH. 
     In some embodiments, the 5G-NR air interface may utilize BWPs for various purposes. For example, BWP can be used for dynamic adaptation of the SCS. For example, the UE  202  can be configured with multiple BWPs where each BWP configuration has a different SCS. When a BWP change is indicated to the UE  202 , the SCS of the transmission is changed as well. Another use case example of BWP is related to power saving. In particular, multiple BWPs can be configured for the UE  202  with different amount of frequency resources (for example, PRBs) to support data transmission under different traffic loading scenarios. A BWP containing a smaller number of PRBs can be used for data transmission with small traffic load while allowing power saving at the UE  202  and in some cases at the gNB  216 . A BWP containing a larger number of PRBs can be used for scenarios with higher traffic load. 
     The RAN  204  is communicatively coupled to CN  220  that includes network elements to provide various functions to support data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (for example, users of UE  202 ). The components of the CN  220  may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes. In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the functions provided by the network elements of the CN  220  onto physical compute/storage resources in servers, switches, etc. A logical instantiation of the CN  220  may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN  220  may be referred to as a network sub-slice. 
     In some embodiments, the CN  220  may be an LTE CN  222 , which may also be referred to as an EPC. The LTE CN  222  may include MME  224 , SGW  226 , SGSN  228 , HSS  230 , PGW  232 , and PCRF  234  coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the LTE CN  222  may be briefly introduced as follows. 
     The MME  224  may implement mobility management functions to track a current location of the UE  202  to facilitate paging, bearer activation/deactivation, handovers, gateway selection, authentication, etc. 
     The SGW  226  may terminate an S1 interface toward the RAN and route data packets between the RAN and the LTE CN  222 . The SGW  226  may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. 
     The SGSN  228  may track a location of the UE  202  and perform security functions and access control. In addition, the SGSN  228  may perform inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between different RAT networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by MME  224 ; MME selection for handovers; etc. The S3 reference point between the MME  224  and the SGSN  228  may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle/active states. 
     The HSS  230  may include a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The HSS  230  can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS  230  and the MME  224  may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the LTE CN  220 . 
     The PGW  232  may terminate an SGi interface toward a data network (DN)  236  that may include an application/content server  238 . The PGW  232  may route data packets between the LTE CN  222  and the data network  236 . The PGW  232  may be coupled with the SGW  226  by an S5 reference point to facilitate user plane tunneling and tunnel management. The PGW  232  may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (for example, PCEF). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the PGW  232  and the data network  2   36  may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra-operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The PGW  232  may be coupled with a PCRF  234  via a Gx reference point. 
     The PCRF  234  is the policy and charging control element of the LTE CN  222 . The PCRF  234  may be communicatively coupled to the app/content server  238  to determine appropriate QoS and charging parameters for service flows. The PCRF  232  may provision associated rules into a PCEF (via Gx reference point) with appropriate TFT and QCI. 
     In some embodiments, the CN  220  may be a 5GC  240 . The 5GC  240  may include an AUSF  242 , AMF  244 , SMF  246 , UPF  248 , NSSF  250 , NEF  252 , NRF  254 , PCF  256 , UDM  258 , and AF  260  coupled with one another over interfaces (or “reference points”) as shown. Functions of the elements of the 5GC  240  may be briefly introduced as follows. 
     The AUSF  242  may store data for authentication of UE  202  and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF  242  may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. In addition to communicating with other elements of the 5GC  240  over reference points as shown, the AUSF  242  may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface. 
     The AMF  244  may allow other functions of the 5GC  240  to communicate with the UE  202  and the RAN  204  and to subscribe to notifications about mobility events with respect to the UE  202 . The AMF  244  may be responsible for registration management (for example, for registering UE  202 ), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF  244  may provide transport for SM messages between the UE  202  and the SMF  246 , and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF  244  may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE  202  and an SMSF. AMF  244  may interact with the AUSF  242  and the UE  202  to perform various security anchor and context management functions. Furthermore, AMF  244  may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the RAN  204  and the AMF  244 ; and the AMF  244  may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. AMF  244  may also support NAS signaling with the UE  202  over an N3 IWF interface. 
     The SMF  246  may be responsible for SM (for example, session establishment, tunnel management between UPF  248  and AN  208 ); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF  248  to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement, charging, and QoS; lawful intercept (for SM events and interface to LI system); termination of SM parts of NAS messages; downlink data notification; initiating AN specific SM information, sent via AMF  244  over N2 to AN  208 ; and determining SSC mode of a session. SM may refer to management of a PDU session, and a PDU session or “session” may refer to a PDU connectivity service that provides or enables the exchange of PDUs between the UE  202  and the data network  236 . 
     The UPF  248  may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to data network  236 , and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF  248  may also perform packet routing and forwarding, perform packet inspection, enforce the user plane part of policy rules, lawfully intercept packets (UP collection), perform traffic usage reporting, perform QoS handling for a user plane (e.g., packet filtering, gating, UL/DL rate enforcement), perform uplink traffic verification (e.g., SDF-to-QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, and perform downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering. UPF  248  may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network. 
     The NSSF  250  may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE  202 . The NSSF  250  may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF  250  may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE  202 , or a list of candidate AMFs based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF  254 . The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE  202  may be triggered by the AMF  244  with which the UE  202  is registered by interacting with the NSSF  250 , which may lead to a change of AMF. The NSSF  250  may interact with the AMF  244  via an N22 reference point; and may communicate with another NSSF in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown). Additionally, the NSSF  250  may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface. 
     The NEF  252  may securely expose services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, AFs (e.g., AF  260 ), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF  252  may authenticate, authorize, or throttle the AFs. NEF  252  may also translate information exchanged with the AF  260  and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF  252  may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF  252  may also receive information from other NFs based on exposed capabilities of other NFs. This information may be stored at the NEF  252  as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF  252  to other NFs and AFs, or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF  252  may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface. 
     The NRF  254  may support service discovery functions, receive NF discovery requests from NF instances, and provide the information of the discovered NF instances to the NF instances. NRF  254  also maintains information of available NF instances and their supported services. As used herein, the terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like may refer to the creation of an instance, and an “instance” may refer to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. Additionally, the NRF  254  may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface. 
     The PCF  256  may provide policy rules to control plane functions to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF  256  may also implement a front end to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM  258 . In addition to communicating with functions over reference points as shown, the PCF  256  exhibit an Npcf service-based interface. 
     The UDM  258  may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE  202 . For example, subscription data may be communicated via an N8 reference point between the UDM  258  and the AMF  244 . The UDM  258  may include two parts, an application front end and a UDR. The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM  258  and the PCF  256 , and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs  202 ) for the NEF  252 . The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR  221  to allow the UDM  258 , PCF  256 , and NEF  252  to access a particular set of the stored data, as well as to read, update (e.g., add, modify), delete, and subscribe to notification of relevant data changes in the UDR. The UDM may include a UDM-FE, which is in charge of processing credentials, location management, subscription management and so on. Several different front ends may serve the same user in different transactions. The UDM-FE accesses subscription information stored in the UDR and performs authentication credential processing, user identification handling, access authorization, registration/mobility management, and subscription management. In addition to communicating with other NFs over reference points as shown, the UDM  258  may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface. 
     The AF  260  may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to NEF, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. 
     In some embodiments, the 5GC  240  may enable edge computing by selecting operator/3rd party services to be geographically close to a point that the UE  202  is attached to the network. This may reduce latency and load on the network. To provide edge-computing implementations, the 5GC  240  may select a UPF  248  close to the UE  202  and execute traffic steering from the UPF  248  to data network  236  via the N6 interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF  260 . In this way, the AF  260  may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF  260  is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF  260  to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF  260  may exhibit an Naf service-based interface. 
     The data network  236  may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services that may be provided by one or more servers including, for example, application/content server  238 . 
       FIG.  3    schematically illustrates a wireless network  300  in accordance with various embodiments. The wireless network  300  may include a UE  302  in wireless communication with an AN  304 . The UE  302  and AN  304  may be similar to, and substantially interchangeable with, like-named components described elsewhere herein. 
     The UE  302  may be communicatively coupled with the AN  304  via connection  306 . The connection  306  is illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols such as an LTE protocol or a 5G NR protocol operating at mmWave or sub-6GHz frequencies. 
     The UE  302  may include a host platform  308  coupled with a modem platform  310 . The host platform  308  may include application processing circuitry  312 , which may be coupled with protocol processing circuitry  314  of the modem platform  310 . The application processing circuitry  312  may run various applications for the UE  302  that source/sink application data. The application processing circuitry  312  may further implement one or more layer operations to transmit/receive application data to/from a data network. These layer operations may include transport (for example UDP) and Internet (for example, IP) operations 
     The protocol processing circuitry  314  may implement one or more of layer operations to facilitate transmission or reception of data over the connection  306 . The layer operations implemented by the protocol processing circuitry  314  may include, for example, MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC and NAS operations. 
     The modem platform  310  may further include digital baseband circuitry  316  that may implement one or more layer operations that are “below” layer operations performed by the protocol processing circuitry  314  in a network protocol stack. These operations may include, for example, PHY operations including one or more of HARQ-ACK functions, scrambling/descrambling, encoding/decoding, layer mapping/de-mapping, modulation symbol mapping, received symbol/bit metric determination, multi-antenna port precoding/decoding, which may include one or more of space-time, space-frequency or spatial coding, reference signal generation/detection, preamble sequence generation and/or decoding, synchronization sequence generation/detection, control channel signal blind decoding, and other related functions. 
     The modem platform  310  may further include transmit circuitry  318 , receive circuitry  320 , RF circuitry  322 , and RF front end (RFFE)  324 , which may include or connect to one or more antenna panels  326 . Briefly, the transmit circuitry  318  may include a digital-to-analog converter, mixer, intermediate frequency (IF) components, etc.; the receive circuitry  320  may include an analog-to-digital converter, mixer, IF components, etc.; the RF circuitry  322  may include a low-noise amplifier, a power amplifier, power tracking components, etc.; RFFE  324  may include filters (for example, surface/bulk acoustic wave filters), switches, antenna tuners, beamforming components (for example, phase-array antenna components), etc. The selection and arrangement of the components of the transmit circuitry  318 , receive circuitry  320 , RF circuitry  322 , RFFE  324 , and antenna panels  326  (referred generically as “transmit/receive components”) may be specific to details of a specific implementation such as, for example, whether communication is TDM or FDM, in mmWave or sub-6 gHz frequencies, etc. In some embodiments, the transmit/receive components may be arranged in multiple parallel transmit/receive chains, may be disposed in the same or different chips/modules, etc. 
     In some embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry  314  may include one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the transmit/receive components. 
     A UE reception may be established by and via the antenna panels  326 , RFFE  324 , RF circuitry  322 , receive circuitry  320 , digital baseband circuitry  316 , and protocol processing circuitry  314 . In some embodiments, the antenna panels  326  may receive a transmission from the AN  304  by receive-beamforming signals received by a plurality of antennas/antenna elements of the one or more antenna panels  326 . 
     A UE transmission may be established by and via the protocol processing circuitry  314 , digital baseband circuitry  316 , transmit circuitry  318 , RF circuitry  322 , RFFE  324 , and antenna panels  326 . In some embodiments, the transmit components of the UE  304  may apply a spatial filter to the data to be transmitted to form a transmit beam emitted by the antenna elements of the antenna panels  326 . 
     Similar to the UE  302 , the AN  304  may include a host platform  328  coupled with a modem platform  330 . The host platform  328  may include application processing circuitry  332  coupled with protocol processing circuitry  334  of the modem platform  330 . The modem platform may further include digital baseband circuitry  336 , transmit circuitry  338 , receive circuitry  340 , RF circuitry  342 , RFFE circuitry  344 , and antenna panels  346 . The components of the AN  304  may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with like-named components of the UE  302 . In addition to performing data transmission/reception as described above, the components of the AN  308  may perform various logical functions that include, for example, RNC functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management, and data packet scheduling. 
       FIG.  4    is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically,  FIG.  4    shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources  400  including one or more processors (or processor cores)  410 , one or more memory/storage devices  420 , and one or more communication resources  430 , each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus  440  or other interface circuitry. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor  402  may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources  400 . 
     The processors  410  may include, for example, a processor  412  and a processor  414 . The processors  410  may be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a DSP such as a baseband processor, an ASIC, an FPGA, a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor (including those discussed herein), or any suitable combination thereof. 
     The memory/storage devices  420  may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices  420  may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile, non-volatile, or semi-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc. 
     The communication resources  430  may include interconnection or network interface controllers, components, or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices  404  or one or more databases  406  or other network elements via a network  408 . For example, the communication resources  430  may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB, Ethernet, etc.), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components. 
     Instructions  450  may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors  410  to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions  450  may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors  410  (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory/storage devices  420 , or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions  450  may be transferred to the hardware resources  400  from any combination of the peripheral devices  404  or the databases  406 . Accordingly, the memory of processors  410 , the memory/storage devices  420 , the peripheral devices  404 , and the databases  406  are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. 
       FIG.  5    illustrates a network  500  in accordance with various embodiments. The network  500  may operate in a matter consistent with 3GPP technical specifications or technical reports for 6G systems. In some embodiments, the network  500  may operate concurrently with network  200 . For example, in some embodiments, the network  500  may share one or more frequency or bandwidth resources with network  200 . As one specific example, a UE (e.g., UE  502 ) may be configured to operate in both network  500  and network  200 . Such configuration may be based on a UE including circuitry configured for communication with frequency and bandwidth resources of both networks  200  and  500 . In general, several elements of network  500  may share one or more characteristics with elements of network  200 . For the sake of brevity and clarity, such elements may not be repeated in the description of network  500 . 
     The network  500  may include a UE  502 , which may include any mobile or non-mobile computing device designed to communicate with a RAN  508  via an over-the-air connection. The UE  502  may be similar to, for example, UE  202 . The UE  502  may be, but is not limited to, a smartphone, tablet computer, wearable computer device, desktop computer, laptop computer, in-vehicle infotainment, in-car entertainment device, instrument cluster, head-up display device, onboard diagnostic device, dashtop mobile equipment, mobile data terminal, electronic engine management system, electronic/engine control unit, electronic/engine control module, embedded system, sensor, microcontroller, control module, engine management system, networked appliance, machine-type communication device, M2M or D2D device, IoT device, etc. 
     Although not specifically shown in  FIG.  5   , in some embodiments the network  500  may include a plurality of UEs coupled directly with one another via a sidelink interface. The UEs may be M2M/D2D devices that communicate using physical sidelink channels such as, but not limited to, PSBCH, PSDCH, PSSCH, PSCCH, PSFCH, etc. Similarly, although not specifically shown in  FIG.  5   , the UE  502  may be communicatively coupled with an AP such as AP  206  as described with respect to  FIG.  2   . Additionally, although not specifically shown in  FIG.  5   , in some embodiments the RAN  508  may include one or more ANss such as AN  208  as described with respect to  FIG.  2   . The RAN  508  and/or the AN of the RAN  508  may be referred to as a base station (BS), a RAN node, or using some other term or name. 
     The UE  502  and the RAN  508  may be configured to communicate via an air interface that may be referred to as a sixth generation (6G) air interface. The 6G air interface may include one or more features such as communication in a terahertz (THz) or sub-THz bandwidth, or joint communication and sensing. As used herein, the term “joint communication and sensing” may refer to a system that allows for wireless communication as well as radar-based sensing via various types of multiplexing. As used herein, THz or sub-THz bandwidths may refer to communication in the 80 GHz and above frequency ranges. Such frequency ranges may additionally or alternatively be referred to as “millimeter wave” or “mmWave” frequency ranges. 
     The RAN  508  may allow for communication between the UE  502  and a 6G core network (CN)  510 . Specifically, the RAN  508  may facilitate the transmission and reception of data between the UE  502  and the 6G CN  510 . The 6G CN  510  may include various functions such as NSSF  250 , NEF  25 2, NRF  254 , PCF  256 , UDM  258 , AF  260 , SMF  246 , and AUSF  242 . The 6G CN  510  may additional include UPF  248  and DN  236  as shown in  FIG.  5   . 
     Additionally, the RAN  508  may include various additional functions that are in addition to, or alternative to, functions of a legacy cellular network such as a 4G or 5G network. Two such functions may include a Compute Control Function (Comp CF)  524  and a Compute Service Function (Comp SF)  536 . The Comp CF  524  and the Comp SF  536  may be parts or functions of the Computing Service Plane. Comp CF  524  may be a control plane function that provides functionalities such as management of the Comp SF  536 , computing task context generation and management (e.g., create, read, modify, delete), interaction with the underlaying computing infrastructure for computing resource management, etc.. Comp SF  536  may be a user plane function that serves as the gateway to interface computing service users (such as UE  502 ) and computing nodes behind a Comp SF instance. Some functionalities of the Comp SF  536  may include: parse computing service data received from users to compute tasks executable by computing nodes; hold service mesh ingress gateway or service API gateway; service and charging policies enforcement; performance monitoring and telemetry collection, etc. In some embodiments, a Comp SF  536  instance may serve as the user plane gateway for a cluster of computing nodes. A Comp CF  524  instance may control one or more Comp SF  536  instances. 
     Two other such functions may include a Communication Control Function (Comm CF)  528  and a Communication Service Function (Comm SF)  538 , which may be parts of the Communication Service Plane. The Comm CF  528  may be the control plane function for managing the Comm SF  538 , communication sessions creation/configuration/releasing, and managing communication session context. The Comm SF  538  may be a user plane function for data transport. Comm CF  528  and Comm SF  538  may be considered as upgrades of SMF  246  and UPF  248 , which were described with respect to a 5G system in  FIG.  2   . The upgrades provided by the Comm CF  528  and the Comm SF  538  may enable service-aware transport. For legacy (e.g., 4G or 5G) data transport, SMF  246  and UPF  248  may still be used. 
     Two other such functions may include a Data Control Function (Data CF)  522  and Data Service Function (Data SF)  532  may be parts of the Data Service Plane. Data CF  522  may be a control plane function and provides functionalities such as Data SF  532  management, Data service creation/configuration/releasing, Data service context management, etc. Data SF  532  may be a user plane function and serve as the gateway between data service users (such as UE  502  and the various functions of the 6G CN  510 ) and data service endpoints behind the gateway. Specific functionalities may include include: parse data service user data and forward to corresponding data service endpoints, generate charging data, report data service status. 
     Another such function may be the Service Orchestration and Chaining Function (SOCF)  520 , which may discover, orchestrate and chain up communication/computing/data services provided by functions in the network. Upon receiving service requests from users, SOCF  520  may interact with one or more of Comp CF  524 , Comm CF  528 , and Data CF  522  to identify Comp SF  536 , Comm SF  538 , and Data SF  532  instances, configure service resources, and generate the service chain, which could contain multiple Comp SF  536 , Comm SF  538 , and Data SF  532  instances and their associated computing endpoints. Workload processing and data movement may then be conducted within the generated service chain. The SOCF  520  may also responsible for maintaining, updating, and releasing a created service chain. 
     Another such function may be the service registration function (SRF)  514 , which may act as a registry for system services provided in the user plane such as services provided by service endpoints behind Comp SF  536  and Data SF  532  gateways and services provided by the UE  502 . The SRF  514  may be considered a counterpart of NRF  254 , which may act as the registry for network functions. 
     Other such functions may include an evolved service communication proxy (eSCP) and service infrastructure control function (SICF)  526 , which may provide service communication infrastructure for control plane services and user plane services. The eSCP may be related to the service communication proxy (SCP) of 5G with user plane service communication proxy capabilities being added. The eSCP is therefore expressed in two parts: eCSP-C  512  and eSCP-U  534 , for control plane service communication proxy and user plane service communication proxy, respectively. The SICF  526  may control and configure eCSP instances in terms of service traffic routing policies, access rules, load balancing configurations, performance monitoring, etc. 
     Another such function is the AMF  544 . The AMF  544  may be similar to  244 , but with additional functionality. Specifically, the AMF  544  may include potential functional repartition, such as move the message forwarding functionality from the AMF  544  to the RAN  508 . 
     Another such function is the service orchestration exposure function (SOEF)  518 . The SOEF may be configured to expose service orchestration and chaining services to external users such as applications. 
     The UE  502  may include an additional function that is referred to as a computing client service function (comp CSF)  504 . The comp CSF  504  may have both the control plane functionalities and user plane functionalities, and may interact with corresponding network side functions such as SOCF  520 , Comp CF  524 , Comp SF  536 , Data CF  522 , and/or Data SF  532  for service discovery, request/response, compute task workload exchange, etc. The Comp CSF  504  may also work with network side functions to decide on whether a computing task should be run on the UE  502 , the RAN  508 , and/or an element of the 6G CN  510 . 
     The UE  502  and/or the Comp CSF  504  may include a service mesh proxy  506 . The service mesh proxy  506  may act as a proxy for service-to-service communication in the user plane. Capabilities of the service mesh proxy  506  may include one or more of addressing, security, load balancing, etc. 
     Example Procedures 
     In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of  FIGS.  2 - 4   , or some other figure herein, may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. 
     One such process is depicted in  FIG.  6   . The process of  FIG.  6    may be performed by a user equipment (UE) or portion thereof in a cellular network. The process may include transmitting, at  601  by the UE to a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) in a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO) during an initial attach procedure, a UE policy container; and identifying, at  602  by the UE in a message received from the PGW-C in a PCO or ePCO during an attach accept or PDN connectivity accept, updated UE policy subscription information, wherein the updated UE policy subscription information is based on information received from the PGW-C from a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network. 
     Another such process is depicted in  FIG.  7   . The process of  FIG.  7    may be performed by a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) or a portion thereof in a cellular network. The process may include identifying, at  701  by the PGW-C in a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO) received from a user equipment (UE) during an initial attach procedure, a UE policy container related to the UE; transmitting, by the PGW-C, an indication of the UE policy container to a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network; identifying, at  702  by the PGW-C in a message received from the PCF or PCRF, updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, at  703  by the PGW-C to the UE in a PCO or ePCO during an attach accept or PDN connectivity accept, an indication of the updated UE policy subscription information. 
     Another such process is depicted in  FIG.  8   . The process of  FIG.  8    may be performed by a user equipment (UE) or portion thereof in a cellular network. The process may include identifying, at  801  by the UE in a message received packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) in a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO), updated UE policy subscription information, wherein the updated UE policy subscription information is based on information received from the PGW-C from a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network; enacting, at  802  by the UE, the updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, at  803  by the UE to the PGW-C for forwarding to the PCF or PCRF, an indication of acknowledgement of the updated UE policy subscription information. 
     Another such process is depicted in  FIG.  9   . The process of  FIG.  9    may be performed by a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) or a portion thereof in a cellular network. The process may include identifying, at  901  by the PGW-C in a message received from a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network, an indication of updated user equipment (UE) policy subscription information; transmitting, at  902  by the PGW-C to a UE, an indication of the updated UE policy subscription information; identifying, at  903  in a message received by the PGW-C from the UE, an acknowledgement of the updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, at  904  by the PGW-C to the PCF or PCRF, an indication of the acknowledgement. 
     For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, and/or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, network element, etc. as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section. 
     EXAMPLES 
     Example 1 may include PCF or PCRF provides the update UE Policy to UE via PGW-C when the UE Policy is updated or the UE Policy Support/Request indication is received. 
     Example 2 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is contained in the UE Policy Container. 
     Example 3 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is sent to UE by PGW-C via ePCO or PCO. 
     Example 4 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, when the UE receives the UE Policy, it acknowledges the reception to PGW-C and PGW-C further forwards the acknowledgement to PCF or PCRF. 
     Example 5 may include t the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is URSP. 
     Example 6 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is ANDSP. 
     Example 7 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy Support/Request indication is carried in the UE Policy Container in Attach Request message. 
     Example 8 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy Support/Request indication is carried in the UE Policy Container in PDN Connectivity Request message. 
     Example 9 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in the UE Policy Container in the Attach Accept message. 
     Example 10 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in the UE Policy Container in the PDN Connectivity Accept message. 
     Example 11 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in a new message. 
     Example 12 may include the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in Update Bearer Request message. 
     Example 13 may include PGW-C provides the update UE Policy to UE when the UE Policy is updated or the UE Policy Support/Request indication is received. 
     Example 14 may include method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is contained in the UE Policy Container. 
     Example 15 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is sent to UE by PGW-C via ePCO or PCO. 
     Example 16 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, when the UE receives the UE Policy, it acknowledges the reception to PGW-C. 
     Example 17 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is URSP. 
     Example 18 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is ANDSP. 
     Example 19 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy Support/Request indication is carried in the UE Policy Container in Attach Request message. 
     Example 20 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy Support/Request indication is carried in the UE Policy Container in PDN Connectivity Request message. 
     Example 21 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in the UE Policy Container in the Attach Accept message. 
     Example 22 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in the UE Policy Container in the PDN Connectivity Accept message. 
     Example 23 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in a new message. 
     Example 24 may include the method of example 13 or some other example herein, wherein the UE Policy is carried in Update Bearer Request message. 
     Example 25 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE) or portion thereof in a cellular network, wherein the method comprises: transmitting, by the UE to a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) in a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO) during an initial attach procedure, a UE policy container; and identifying, by the UE in a message received from the PGW-C in a PCO or ePCO during an attach accept or PDN connectivity accept, updated UE policy subscription information, wherein the updated UE policy subscription information is based on information received from the PGW-C from a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network. 
     Example 26 includes a method to be performed by a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) or a portion thereof in a cellular network, wherein the method comprises: identifying, by the PGW-C in a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO) received from a user equipment (UE) during an initial attach procedure, a UE policy container related to the UE; transmitting, by the PGW-C, an indication of the UE policy container to a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network; identifying, by the PGW-C in a message received from the PCF or PCRF, updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, by the PGW-C to the UE in a PCO or ePCO during an attach accept or PDN connectivity accept, an indication of the updated UE policy subscription information. 
     Example 27 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE) or portion thereof in a cellular network, wherein the method comprises: identifying, by the UE in a message received packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) in a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO), updated UE policy subscription information, wherein the updated UE policy subscription information is based on information received from the PGW-C from a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network; enacting, by the UE, the updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, by the UE to the PGW-C for forwarding to the PCF or PCRF, an indication of acknowledgement of the updated UE policy subscription information. 
     Example 28 includes a method to be performed by a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) or a portion thereof in a cellular network, wherein the method comprises: identifying, by the PGW-C in a message received from a policy and charging function (PCF) or a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) of a fifth generation (5G) system (5GS) of the cellular network, an indication of updated user equipment (UE) policy subscription information; transmitting, by the PGW-C to a UE, an indication of the updated UE policy subscription information; identifying, in a message received by the PGW-C from the UE, an acknowledgement of the updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, by the PGW-C to the PCF or PCRF, an indication of the acknowledgement. 
     Example 29 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: transmitting, to a network entity of a cellular network, an indication of a UE policy container during an initial attach procedure; and identifying, based on the transmission of the indication of the UE policy container, updated policy subscription information. 
     Example 30 includes the method of example 29, and/or some other example herein, wherein the network entity is a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C). 
     Example 31 includes the method of any of examples 29-30, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the UE policy container is a protocol configuration option (PCO) or extended PCO (ePCO). 
     Example 32 includes the method of any of examples 29-31, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated policy subscription information is received during an attach accept or packet data network (PDN) connectivity accept. 
     Example 33 includes the method of any of examples 29-32, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated policy subscription information is based on information received by the network entity from a policy and charging function (PCF). 
     Example 34 includes the method of any of examples 29-33, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated policy subscription information is based on information received by the network entity from a policy and charging rules function (PCRF). 
     Example 35 includes a method to be performed by a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) entity of a cellular network, wherein the method comprises: identifying, from a user equipment (UE) during an initial attach procedure, an indication of a UE policy container; identifying, based on the UE policy container, updated policy subscription information; and transmitting, to the UE, an indication of the updated policy subscription information. 
     Example 36 includes the method of example 35, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the UE policy container is a protocol configuration option (PCO). 
     Example 37 includes the method of any o examples 35-36, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the UE policy container is an extended protocol configuration option (ePCO). 
     Example 38 includes the method of any of examples 35-37, and/or some other example herein, further comprising transmitting the indication of the updated policy subscription information in an attach accept transmission. 
     Example 39 includes the method of any of examples 35-38, and/or some other example herein, further comprising transmitting the indication of the updated policy subscription information in a packet data network (PDN) connectivity accept transmission. 
     Example 40 includes the method of any of examples 35-39, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated policy subscription information is based on information received by the network entity from a policy and charging function (PCF). 
     Example 41 includes the method of any of examples 35-40, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated policy subscription information is based on information received by the network entity from a policy and charging rules function (PCRF). 
     Example 42 includes a method to be performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: identifying, from a network entity, a received indication of updated UE policy subscription information; enacting the updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, to the network entity, an indication of acknowledgement of the updated UE policy subscription information. 
     Example 43 includes the method of example 42, and/or some other example herein, wherein the network entity is a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C). 
     Example 44 includes the method of any of examples 42-43, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the updated UE policy subscription information is received in a protocol configuration option (PCO). 
     Example 45 includes the method of any of examples 42-44, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the updated UE policy subscription information is received in an extended protocol configuration option (ePCO). 
     Example 46 includes the method of any of examples 42-45, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated UE policy subscription information is based on information received by the network entity from a policy and charging function (PCF). 
     Example 47 includes the method of any of examples 42-46, and/or some other example herein, wherein the updated UE policy subscription information is based on information received by the network entity from a policy and charging rules function (PCRF). 
     Example 48 includes a method to be performed by a packet data network (PDN) gateway control (PGW-C) entity of a cellular network, wherein the method comprises: identifying, from a network entity, a received indication of updated user equipment (UE) policy subscription information; transmitting, to the UE, an indication of the updated UE policy subscription information; identifying, in a message received from the UE, an acknowledgement of the updated UE policy subscription information; and transmitting, to the network entity, an indication of the acknowledgement. 
     Example 49 includes the method of example 48, and/or some other example herein, wherein the network entity is a policy and charging function (PCF). 
     Example 50 includes the method of any of examples 48-49, and/or some other example herein, wherein the network entity is a policy and charging rules function (PCRF). 
     Example 51 includes the method of any of examples 48-50, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the updated UE policy subscription information is transmitted to the UE in a protocol configuration option (PCO). 
     Example 52 includes the method of any of examples 48-51, and/or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the updated UE policy subscription information is transmitted to the UE in an extended protocol configuration option (ePCO). 
     Example Z01 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example Z02 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example Z03 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example Z04 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions or parts thereof. 
     Example Z05 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions thereof. 
     Example Z06 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions or parts thereof. 
     Example Z07 may include a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. 
     Example Z08 may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. 
     Example Z09 may include a signal encoded with a datagram, packet, frame, segment, protocol data unit (PDU), or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure. 
     Example Z10 may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions thereof. 
     Example Z11 may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-52, or portions thereof. 
     Example Z12 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein. 
     Example Z13 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein. 
     Example Z14 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. 
     Example Z15 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. 
     Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples), unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments. 
     ABBREVIATIONS 
     Unless used differently herein, terms, definitions, and abbreviations may be consistent with terms, definitions, and abbreviations defined in 3GPP TR 21.905 v16.0.0 (2019-06). For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations may apply to the examples and embodiments discussed herein. 
     
       
         
           
               
               
               
               
               
               
            
               
                 3GPP 
                 Third Generation Partnership Project 
                 ARP 
                 Allocation and Retention Priority 
                 C-RNTI 
                 Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity 
               
               
                 4G 
                 Fourth Generation 
                 ARQ 
                 Automatic Repeat Request 
                 CA 
                 Carrier Aggregation, Certification Authority 
               
               
                 5G 5GC 5G 
                 Fifth Generation Core network 
                 AS 
                 Access Stratum 
                   
                   
               
               
                 AC 
                 Application Client 
                 ASP 
                 Application Service Provider 
                 CAPEX 
                 CAPital EXpenditure 
               
               
                 ACR 
                 Application Context Relocation 
                 ASN.1 
                 Abstract Syntax Notation One 
                 CBRA 
                 Contention Based Random Access 
               
               
                 ACK 
                 Acknowledgement 
                 AUSF 
                 AuthenticationServer Function 
                 CC 
                 Component Carrier, Country Code, Cryptographic Checksum 
               
               
                 ACID 
                 Application Client Identification 
                 AWGN 
                 AdditiveWhite Gaussian Noise 
                 CCA 
                 Clear Channel Assessment 
               
               
                 AF 
                 Application Function 
                 BAP 
                 Backhaul Adaptation Protocol 
                 CCE 
                 Control Channel Element 
               
               
                 AM 
                 Acknowledged Mode 
                 BCH 
                 Broadcast Channel 
                 CCCH 
                 Common Control Channel 
               
               
                 AMBR 
                 Aggregate Maximum Bit Rate 
                 BER 
                 Bit Error Ratio 
                 CE 
                 Coverage Enhancement 
               
               
                 AMF 
                 Access and Mobility Management Function 
                 BFD 
                 Beam Failure Detection 
                 CDM 
                 Content Delivery Network 
               
               
                 AN 
                 Access Network 
                 BLER 
                 Block Error Rate 
                 CDMA 
                 Code-Division Multiple Access 
               
               
                 ANR 
                 Automatic Neighbour Relation 
                 BPSK 
                 Binary Phase Shift Keying 
                 CDR 
                 Charging Data Request 
               
               
                 AOA 
                 Angle of Arrival 
                 BRAS 
                 Broadband Remote Access Server 
                 CDR 
                 Charging Data Response 
               
               
                 AP 
                 Application Protocol, Antenna Port, Access Point 
                 BSS 
                 Business Support System 
                 CFRA 
                 Contention Free Random Access 
               
               
                 API 
                 Application Programming Interface 
                 BS 
                 Base Station 
                 CSI-IM 
                 CSI Interference Measurement 
               
               
                 APN 
                 Access Point Name 
                 BSR 
                 Buffer Status Report 
                 CSI-RS 
                 CSI Reference Signal 
               
               
                 CG 
                 Cell Group 
                 BW 
                 Bandwidth 
                 CSI-RSRP 
                 CSI reference signal received power 
               
               
                 CGF 
                 Charging Gateway Function 
                 BWP 
                 Bandwidth PartDescriptor 
                 CSI-RSRQ 
                 CSI reference signal received quality 
               
               
                 CHF 
                 Charging Function 
                 CPD 
                 Customer Premise Equipment 
                 CSI-SINR 
                 CSI signal-to-noise and interference ratio 
               
               
                 CI 
                 Cell Identity 
                 CPE 
                 Connection Point 
                 CSMA 
                 Carrier Sense Multiple Access 
               
               
                 CID 
                 Cell-ID (e.g., positioning method) 
                 CPICH 
                 Channel Common Pilot 
                 CSMA/CA 
                 CSMA with collision avoidance 
               
               
                 CIM 
                 Common Information Model 
                 CQI 
                 Channel Quality Indicator 
                 CSS 
                 Common Search Space, Cell- specific Search Space 
               
               
                 CIR 
                 Carrier to Interference Ratio 
                 CPU 
                 CSI processing unit, Central Processing Unit C/R Command/Response field bit 
                 CTF 
                 Charging Trigger Function 
               
               
                 CK 
                 Cipher Key 
                 CRAN 
                 Cloud Radio Access Network, Cloud 
                 CTS 
                 Clear-to-Send 
               
               
                 CM 
                 Connection Management, Conditional 
                 CRB 
                 Common Resource Block 
                 CW 
                 Codeword 
               
               
                 CMAS 
                 Commercial Mobile Alert Service 
                 CRC 
                 Cyclic Redundancy Check 
                 CWS 
                 Contention Window Size 
               
               
                 CMD 
                 Command 
                 CRI 
                 Channel-State Information Resource Indicator, CSI-RS Resource Indicator 
                 D2D 
                 Device-to-Device 
               
               
                 CMS 
                 Cloud Management System 
                 C-RNTI 
                 Cell RNTI 
                 DC 
                 Dual Connectivity, Direct Current 
               
               
                 CO 
                 Conditional Optional 
                 CS 
                 Circuit Switched 
                 DCI 
                 Downlink Control Information 
               
               
                 CoMP 
                 Coordinated MultiPoint 
                 CSCF 
                 call session control function 
                 DF 
                 Deployment Flavour 
               
               
                 CORESET 
                 Control Resource Set 
                 CSAR 
                 Cloud Service Archive 
                 EHE 
                 Edge Hosting Environment 
               
               
                 COTS 
                 Commercial Off-The-Shelf 
                 CSI 
                 Channel-State Information 
                 EGMF 
                 Exposure Governance Management Function 
               
               
                 CP 
                 Control Plane, Cyclic Prefix, Connection Point 
                 ECCA 
                 extended clear channel assessment, extended CCA 
                 EGPRS 
                 Enhanced GPRS 
               
               
                 DL 
                 Downlink 
                 ECCE 
                 Enhanced Control Channel Element, Enhanced CCE 
                 EIR 
                 Equipment Identity Register 
               
               
                 DMTF 
                 Distributed Management Task Force 
                 ED 
                 Energy Detection 
                 eLAA 
                 enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, enhanced LAA 
               
               
                 DPDK 
                 Data Plane Development Kit 
                 EDGE 
                 Enhanced Datarates for GSM Evolution (GSM Evolution) 
                 EM 
                 Element Manager 
               
               
                 DM-RS, DMRS 
                 Demodulation Reference Signal 
                 EAS 
                 Edge Application Server 
                 eMBB 
                 Enhanced Mobile Broadband 
               
               
                 DN 
                 Data network 
                 EASID 
                 Edge Application Server Identification 
                 EMS 
                 Element Management System 
               
               
                 DNN 
                 Data Network Name 
                 ECS 
                 Edge Configuration Server 
                 eNB 
                 evolved NodeB, E-UTRAN Node B 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                   
                 EN-DC 
                 E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity 
               
               
                 DNAI 
                 Data Network Access Identifier 
                 ECSP 
                 Edge Computing Service Provider 
                 EPC 
                 Evolved Packet Core 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                   
                 EPDCCH 
                 enhanced PDCCH, enhanced Physical Downlink Control Cannel 
               
               
                 DRB 
                 Data Radio Bearer 
                 EDN 
                 Edge Data Network 
                 EPRE 
                 Energy per resource element 
               
               
                 DRS 
                 Discovery Reference Signal 
                 EEC 
                 Edge Enabler Client 
                 EPS 
                 Evolved Packet System 
               
               
                 DRX 
                 Discontinuous Reception 
                 EECID 
                 Edge Enabler Client Identification 
                 FQDN 
                 Fully Qualified Domain Name 
               
               
                 DSL 
                 Domain Specific Language. Digital Subscriber Line 
                 EES 
                 Edge Enabler Server 
                 G-RNTI 
                 GERAN Radio Network Temporary Identity 
               
               
                   
                   
                   
                   
                 GERAN 
                 GSM EDGE RAN, GSM EDGE Radio Access Network 
               
               
                 DSLAM 
                 DSL Access Multiplexer 
                 EESID 
                 Edge Enabler Server Identification 
                 GGSN 
                 Gateway GPRS Support Node 
               
               
                 DwPTS 
                 Downlink Pilot Time Slot 
                 FACH 
                 Forward Access Channel 
                 GLONASS 
                 GLObal’naya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (Engl.: Global Navigation Satellite System) 
               
               
                 E-LAN 
                 Ethernet Local Area Network 
                 FAUSCH 
                 Fast Uplink Signalling Channel 
                 gNB 
                 Next Generation NodeB 
               
               
                 E2E 
                 End-to-End 
                 FB 
                 Functional Block 
                 gNB-CU 
                 gNB-centralized unit, Next Generation NodeB centralized unit 
               
               
                 EAS 
                 Edge Application Server 
                 FBI 
                 Feedback Information 
                 gNB-DU 
                 gNB-distributed unit, Next Generation NodeB distributed unit 
               
               
                 EREG 
                 enhanced REG, enhanced resource element groups 
                 FCC 
                 Federal Communications Commission 
                 GNSS 
                 Global Navigation Satellite System 
               
               
                 ETSI 
                 European Telecommunications Standards Institute 
                 FCCH 
                 Frequency Correction Channel 
                 GPRS 
                 General Packet Radio Service 
               
               
                 ETWS 
                 Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System 
                 FDD 
                 Frequency Division Duplex 
                 GPSI 
                 Generic Public Subscription Identifier 
               
               
                 eUICC 
                 embedded UICC, embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card 
                 FDM 
                 Frequency Division Multiplex 
                 IEI 
                 Information Element Identifier 
               
               
                 E-UTRA 
                 Evolved UTRA 
                 FDMA 
                 Frequency Division Multiple Access 
                 IEIDL 
                 Information Element Identifier Data Length 
               
               
                 E-UTRAN 
                 Evolved UTRAN 
                 FE 
                 Front End 
                 IETF 
                 Internet Engineering Task Force 
               
               
                 EV2X 
                 Enhanced V2X 
                 FEC 
                 Forward Error Correction 
                 IF 
                 Infrastructure 
               
               
                 F1AP 
                 F1 Application Protocol 
                 FFS 
                 For Further Study 
                 IIOT 
                 Industrial Internet of Things 
               
               
                 F1-C 
                 F1 Control plane interface 
                 FFT 
                 Fast Fourier Transformation 
                 IM 
                 Interference Measurement, Intermodulation, IP Multimedia 
               
               
                 F1-U 
                 F1 User plane interface 
                 feLAA 
                 further enhanced Licensed Assisted Access, further enhanced LAA 
                 IMC 
                 IMS Credentials 
               
               
                 FACCH 
                 Fast Associated Control Channel 
                 FN 
                 Frame Number 
                 IMEI 
                 International Mobile Equipment Identity 
               
               
                 FACCH/F 
                 Fast Associated Control Channel/Full rate 
                 FPGA 
                 Field-Programmable Gate Array 
                 IMGI 
                 International mobile group identity 
               
               
                 FACCH/H 
                 Fast Associated Control Channel/Half rate 
                 FR 
                 Frequency Range 
                 IMPI 
                 IP Multimedia Private Identity 
               
               
                 GSM 
                 Global System for Mobile Communications, Groupe Special Mobile 
                 HSN 
                 Hopping Sequence Number 
                 IMPU 
                 IP Multimedia PUblic identity 
               
               
                 GTP 
                 GPRS Tunneling Protocol 
                 HSPA 
                 High Speed Packet Access 
                 IMS 
                 IP Multimedia Subsystem 
               
               
                 GTP-UGPRS 
                 Tunnelling Protocol for User Plane 
                 HSS 
                 Home Subscriber Server 
                 IMSI 
                 International Mobile Subscriber Identity 
               
               
                 GTS 
                 Go To Sleep Signal (related to WUS) 
                 HSUPA 
                 High Speed Uplink Packet Access 
                 IoT 
                 Internet of Things 
               
               
                 GUMMEI 
                 Globally Unique MME Identifier 
                 HTTP 
                 Hyper Text Transfer Protocol 
                 IP 
                 Internet Protocol 
               
               
                 GUTI 
                 Globally Unique Temporary UE Identity 
                 HTTPS 
                 Hyper Text Transfer ProtocolSecure (https is http/1.1 over SSL, i.e. port 443) 
                 Ipsec 
                 IP Security, Internet Protocol Security 
               
               
                 HARQ 
                 Hybrid ARQ, Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request 
                 I-Block 
                 Block Information 
                 LI 
                 Layer Indicator 
               
               
                 HANDO 
                 Handover 
                 ICCID 
                 Integrated Circuit Card Identification 
                 LLC 
                 Logical Link Control, Low Layer Compatibility 
               
               
                 HFN 
                 HyperFrame Number 
                 IAB 
                 Integrated Access and Backhaul 
                 LMF 
                 Location Management Function 
               
               
                 HHO 
                 Hard Handover 
                 ICIC 
                 Inter-Cell Interference Coordination 
                 LOS 
                 Line of Sight 
               
               
                 HLR 
                 Home Location Register 
                 ID 
                 Identity, identifier 
                 LPLMN 
                 Local PLMN 
               
               
                 HN 
                 Home Network 
                 IDFT 
                 Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform 
                 LPP 
                 LTE Positioning Protocol 
               
               
                 HO 
                 Handover 
                 IE 
                 Information element 
                 LSB 
                 Least Significant Bit 
               
               
                 HPLMN 
                 Home Public Land Mobile Network 
                 IBE 
                 In-Band Emission 
                 LTE 
                 Long Term Evolution 
               
               
                 HSDPA 
                 High Speed Downlink Packet Access 
                 IEEE 
                 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 
                 LWA 
                 LTE-WLAN aggregation 
               
               
                 IP-CAN 
                 IP-Connectivity Access Network 
                 Ki 
                 Individual subscriber authentication key 
                 LWIP 
                 LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel 
               
               
                 IP-M 
                 IP Multicast 
                 KPI 
                 Key Performance Indicator 
                 LTE 
                 Long Term Evolution 
               
               
                 IPv4 
                 Internet Protocol Version 4 
                 KQI 
                 Key Quality Indicator 
                 M2M 
                 Machine-to-Machine 
               
               
                 IPv6 
                 Internet ProtocolVersion 6 
                 KSI 
                 Key Set Identifier 
                 MAC 
                 Medium Access Control (protocol layering context) 
               
               
                 IR 
                 Infrared 
                 ksps 
                 kilo-symbols per second 
                 MAC 
                 Message authentication code (security/encryption context) 
               
               
                 IS 
                 In Sync 
                 KVM 
                 Kernel Virtual Machine 
                 MAC-A 
                 MAC used for authentication and key agreement (TSG T WG3 context) 
               
               
                 IRP 
                 Integration Reference Point 
                 L1 
                 Layer 1 (physical layer) 
                 MPLS 
                 MultiProtocol Label Switching 
               
               
                 ISDN 
                 Integrated Services Digital Network 
                 L1-RSRP 
                 Layer 1 reference signal received power 
                 MS 
                 Mobile Station 
               
               
                 ISIM 
                 IM Services Identity Module 
                 L2 
                 Layer 2 (data link layer) 
                 MSB 
                 Most Significant Bit 
               
               
                 ISO 
                 International Organisation for Standardisation 
                 L3 
                 Layer 3 (network layer) 
                 MSC 
                 Mobile Switching Centre 
               
               
                 ISP 
                 Internet Service Provider 
                 LAA 
                 Licensed Assisted Access 
                 MSI 
                 Minimum System Information, MCH Scheduling Information 
               
               
                 IWF 
                 Interworking-Function 
                 LAN 
                 Local Area Network 
                 MSID 
                 Mobile Station Identifier 
               
               
                 I-WLAN 
                 Interworking WLAN Constraint length of the convolutional code, USIM Individual key kB Kilobyte (1000 bytes) kbps kilo-bits per second Kc Ciphering key MAC-IMAC used for data integrity of signalling messages (TSG T WG3 context) 
                 LADN 
                 Local Area Data Network 
                 MSIN 
                 Mobile Station Identification Number 
               
               
                 MANO 
                 Management and Orchestration 
                 LBT 
                 Listen Before Talk 
                 MSISDN 
                 Mobile Subscriber ISDN Number 
               
               
                 MBMS 
                 Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service 
                 LCM 
                 LifeCycle Management 
                 MT 
                 Mobile Terminated, Mobile Termination 
               
               
                 MBSFN 
                 Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency Network 
                 LCR 
                 Low Chip Rate 
                 MTC 
                 Machine-Type Communications 
               
               
                 MCC 
                 Mobile Country Code 
                 LCS 
                 Location Services 
                 mMTCmassive 
                 MTC, massive Machine-Type Communications 
               
               
                 MCG 
                 Master Cell Group 
                 LCID 
                 Logical Channel ID 
                 MU-MIMO 
                 Multi User MIMO 
               
               
                 MCOT 
                 Maximum Channel Occupancy Time 
                 MIB 
                 Master Information Block, Management Information Base 
                 MWUS 
                 MTC wake-up signal, MTC WUS 
               
               
                 MCS 
                 Modulation and coding scheme 
                 MIMO 
                 Multiple InputMultiple Output 
                 NACK 
                 Negative Acknowledgement 
               
               
                 MDAF 
                 Management Data Analytics Function 
                 MLC 
                 Mobile Location Centre 
                 NAI 
                 Network Access Identifier 
               
               
                 MDAS 
                 Management Data Analytics Service 
                 MM 
                 Mobility Management 
                 NS 
                 Network Service 
               
               
                 MDT 
                 Minimization of Drive Tests 
                 MME 
                 Mobility Management Entity 
                 NSA 
                 Non-Standalone operation mode 
               
               
                 ME 
                 Mobile Equipment 
                 MN 
                 Master Node 
                 NSD 
                 Network Service Descriptor 
               
               
                 MeNB 
                 master eNB 
                 MNO 
                 Mobile Network Operator 
                 NSR 
                 Network Service Record 
               
               
                 MER 
                 Message Error Ratio 
                 MO 
                 Measurement Object, Mobile Originated 
                 NSSAI 
                 Network Slice Selection Assistance Information 
               
               
                 MGL 
                 Measurement Gap Length 
                 MPBCH 
                 MTC Physical Broadcast Channel 
                 S-NNSAI 
                 Single-NSSAI 
               
               
                 MGRP 
                 Measurement Gap Repetition Period 
                 MPDCCH 
                 MTC Physical Downlink Control CHannel 
                 NSSF 
                 Network Slice Selection Function 
               
               
                 NAS 
                 Non-Access Stratum, Non- Access Stratum layer 
                 MPDSCH 
                 MTC Physical Downlink Shared CHannel 
                 NW 
                 Network 
               
               
                 NCT 
                 Network Connectivity Topology 
                 MPRACH 
                 MTC Physical Random Access CHannel 
                 NWUS 
                 Narrowband wake-up signal, Narrowband WUS 
               
               
                 NC-JT 
                 Non-Coherent Joint Transmission 
                 MPUSCH 
                 MTC Physical Uplink Shared Channel 
                 NZP 
                 Non-Zero Power 
               
               
                 NEC 
                 Network Capability Exposure 
                 N-PoP 
                 Network Point of Presence 
                 O&amp;M 
                 Operation and Maintenance 
               
               
                 NE-DC 
                 NR-E-UTRA Dual Connectivity 
                 NMIB, N-MIB 
                 Narrowband MIB 
                 ODU2 
                 Optical channel Data Unit - type 2 
               
               
                 NEF 
                 Network Exposure Function 
                 NPBCH 
                 Narrowband Physical Broadcast CHannel 
                 OFDM 
                 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing 
               
               
                 NF 
                 Network Function 
                 NPDCCH 
                 Narrowband Physical Downlink Control CHannel 
                 OFDMA 
                 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access 
               
               
                 NFP 
                 Network Forwarding Path 
                 NPDSCH 
                 Narrowband Physical Downlink Shared CHannel 
                 OOB 
                 Out-of-band 
               
               
                 NFPD 
                 Network Forwarding Path Descriptor 
                 NPRACH 
                 Narrowband Physical Random Access CHannel 
                 OOS 
                 Out of Sync 
               
               
                 NFV 
                 Network Functions Virtualization 
                 NPUSCH 
                 Narrowband Physical Uplink Shared CHannel 
                 OPEX 
                 OPerating EXpense 
               
               
                 NFVI 
                 NFV Infrastructure 
                 NPSS 
                 Narrowband Primary Synchronization Signal 
                 PNFR 
                 Physical Network Function Record 
               
               
                 NFVO 
                 NFV Orchestrator 
                 NSSS 
                 Narrowband Secondary Synchronization Signal 
                 POC 
                 PTT over Cellular 
               
               
                 NG 
                 Next Generation, Next Gen 
                 NR 
                 New Radio, Neighbour Relation 
                 PP, PTP 
                 Point-to-Point 
               
               
                 NGEN-DC 
                 NG-RAN E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity 
                 NRF 
                 NF Repository Function 
                 PPP 
                 Point-to-Point Protocol 
               
               
                   
                   
                 NRS 
                 Narrowband Reference Signal 
                 PRACH 
                 Physical RACH 
               
               
                 NM 
                 Network Manager 
                 PDCCH 
                 Physical Downlink Control Channel 
                 PRB 
                 Physical resource block 
               
               
                 NMS 
                 Network Management System 
                 PDCP 
                 Packet Data Convergence Protocol 
                 PRG 
                 Physical resource block group 
               
               
                 OSI 
                 Other System Information 
                 PDN 
                 Packet Data Network, Public Data Network 
                 ProSe 
                 Proximity Services, Proximity-Based Service 
               
               
                 OSS 
                 Operations Support System 
                 PDSCH 
                 Physical Downlink Shared Channel 
                 PRS 
                 Positioning Reference Signal 
               
               
                 OTA 
                 over-the-air 
                 PDU 
                 Protocol Data Unit 
                 PRR 
                 Packet Reception Radio 
               
               
                 PAPR 
                 Peak-to-Average Power Ratio 
                 PEI 
                 Permanent Equipment Identifiers 
                 PS 
                 Packet Services 
               
               
                 PAR 
                 Peak to Average Ratio 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 PBCH 
                 Physical Broadcast Channel 
                 PFD 
                 Packet Flow Description 
                 PSBCH 
                 Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel 
               
               
                 PC 
                 Power Control, Personal Computer 
                 P-GW 
                 PDN Gateway 
                 PSDCH 
                 Physical Sidelink Downlink Channel 
               
               
                 PCC 
                 Primary Component Carrier, Primary CC 
                 PHICH 
                 Physical hybrid-ARQ indicator channel 
                 PSCCH 
                 Physical Sidelink Control Channel 
               
               
                 P-CSCF 
                 Proxy CSCF 
                 PHY 
                 Physical layer 
                 PSSCH 
                 Physical Sidelink Shared Channel 
               
               
                 PCell 
                 Primary Cell 
                 PLMN 
                 Public Land Mobile Network 
                 RLC UM 
                 RLC Unacknowledged Mode 
               
               
                 PCI 
                 Physical Cell ID, Physical Cell Identity 
                 PIN 
                 Personal Identification Number 
                 RLF 
                 Radio Link Failure 
               
               
                 PCEF 
                 Policy and Charging Enforcement Function 
                 PM 
                 Performance Measurement 
                 RLM 
                 Radio Link Monitoring 
               
               
                 PCF 
                 Policy Control Function 
                 PMI 
                 Precoding Matrix Indicator 
                 RLM-RS 
                 Reference Signal for RLM RM Registration Management 
               
               
                 PCRF 
                 Policy Control and Charging Rules Function 
                 PNF 
                 Physical Network Function 
                 RMC 
                 Reference Measurement Channel 
               
               
                 PDCP 
                 Packet Data Convergence Protocol, Packet Data Convergence Protocol layer 
                 PNFD 
                 Physical Network Function Descriptor 
                 RMSI 
                 Remaining MSI, Remaining Minimum System Information 
               
               
                 PSCell 
                 Primary SCell 
                 RACH 
                 Random Access Channel 
                 RN 
                 Relay Node 
               
               
                 PSS 
                 Primary Synchronization Signal 
                 RADIUS 
                 Remote Authentication Dial In User Service 
                 RNC 
                 Radio Network Controller 
               
               
                 PSTN 
                 Public Switched Telephone Network 
                 RAN 
                 Radio Access Network 
                 RNL 
                 Radio Network Layer 
               
               
                 PT-RS 
                 Phase-tracking reference signal 
                 RAND 
                 RANDom number (used for authentication) 
                 RNTI 
                 Radio Network Temporary Identifier 
               
               
                 PTT 
                 Push-to-Talk 
                 RAR 
                 Random Access Response 
                 ROHC 
                 RObust Header Compression 
               
               
                 PUCCH 
                 Physical Uplink Control Channel 
                 RAT 
                 Radio Access Technology 
                 RRC 
                 Radio Resource Control, Radio Resource Control layer 
               
               
                 PUSCH 
                 Physical Uplink Shared Channel 
                 RAU 
                 Routing Area Update 
                 RRM 
                 Radio Resource Management 
               
               
                 QAM 
                 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation 
                   
                   
                 RS 
                 Reference Signal 
               
               
                 QCI 
                 QoS class of identifier 
                 RB 
                 Resource block, Radio Bearer 
                 RSRP 
                 Reference Signal Received Power 
               
               
                 QCL 
                 Quasi co-location 
                 RBG 
                 Resource block group 
                 RSRQ 
                 Reference Signal Received Quality 
               
               
                 QFI 
                 QoS Flow ID, QoS Flow Identifier 
                 REG 
                 Resource Element Group 
                 SDSF 
                 Structured Data Storage Function 
               
               
                 QoS 
                 Quality of Service 
                 Rel 
                 Release 
                 SDT 
                 Small Data Transmission 
               
               
                 QPSK 
                 Quadrature (Quaternary) Phase Shift Keying 
                 REQ 
                 REQuest 
                 SDU 
                 Service Data Unit 
               
               
                 QZSS 
                 Quasi-Zenith Satellite System 
                 RF 
                 Radio Frequency 
                 SEAF 
                 Security Anchor Function 
               
               
                 RA-RNTI 
                 Random Access RNTI 
                 RI 
                 Rank Indicator 
                 SeNB 
                 secondary eNB 
               
               
                 RAB 
                 Radio Access Bearer, Random Access Burst 
                 RIV 
                 Resource indicator value 
                 SEPP 
                 Security Edge Protection Proxy 
               
               
                 RSSI 
                 Received Signal Strength Indicator 
                 RL 
                 Radio Link 
                 SFI 
                 Slot format indication 
               
               
                 RSU 
                 Road Side Unit 
                 RLC 
                 Radio Link Control, Radio Link Control layer 
                 SFTD 
                 Space-Frequency Time Diversity, SFN and frame timing difference 
               
               
                 RSTD 
                 Reference Signal Time difference 
                 RLC AM 
                 RLC Acknowledged Mode 
                 SFN 
                 System Frame Number 
               
               
                 RTP 
                 Real Time Protocol 
                 SAPI 
                 Service Access Point Identifier 
                 SgNB 
                 Secondary gNB 
               
               
                 RTS 
                 Ready-To-Send 
                 SCC 
                 Secondary Component Carrier, Secondary CC 
                 SGSN 
                 Serving GPRS Support Node 
               
               
                 RTT 
                 Round Trip Time Rx Reception, Receiving, Receiver 
                 SCell 
                 Secondary Cell 
                 S-GW 
                 Serving Gateway 
               
               
                 S1AP 
                 S1 Application Protocol 
                 SCEF 
                 Service Capability Exposure Function 
                 SI 
                 System Information 
               
               
                 S1-MME 
                 S1 for the control plane 
                 SC-FDMA 
                 Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access 
                 SI-RNTI 
                 System Information RNTI 
               
               
                 S1-U 
                 S1 for the user plane 
                 SCG 
                 Secondary Cell Group 
                 SIB 
                 System Information Block 
               
               
                 S-CSCF 
                 serving CSCF 
                 SCM 
                 Security Context Management 
                 SIM 
                 Subscriber Identity Module 
               
               
                   
                   
                 SCS 
                 Subcarrier Spacing 
                 SIP 
                 Session Initiated Protocol 
               
               
                 S-GW 
                 Serving Gateway 
                 SCTP 
                 Stream Control Transmission Protocol 
                 SiP 
                 System in Package 
               
               
                 S-RNTI 
                 SRNC Radio Network Temporary Identity 
                 SDAP 
                 Service Data Adaptation Protocol, Service Data Adaptation Protocol layer 
                 SL 
                 Sidelink 
               
               
                 S-TMSI 
                 SAE Temporary Mobile Station Identifier 
                 SDL 
                 Supplementary Downlink 
                 SU-MIMO 
                 Single User MIMO 
               
               
                 SA 
                 Standalone operation mode 
                 SDNF 
                 Structured Data Storage Network Function 
                 SUL 
                 Supplementary Uplink 
               
               
                 SAE 
                 System Architecture Evolution 
                 SDP 
                 Session Description Protocol 
                 TA 
                 Timing Advance, Tracking Area 
               
               
                 SAP 
                 Service Access Point 
                 SSID 
                 Service Set Identifier 
                 TAC 
                 Tracking Area Code 
               
               
                 SAPD 
                 Service Access Point Descriptor 
                 SS/PBCH Block 
                 SSBRI SS/PBCH Block Resource Indicator, Synchronization Signal Block Resource Indicator 
                 TAG 
                 Timing Advance Group 
               
               
                 SLA 
                 Service Level Agreement 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 SM 
                 Session Management 
                 SSC 
                 Session and Service Continuity 
                 TAI 
                 Tracking Area Identity 
               
               
                 SMF 
                 Session Management Function 
                 SS-RSRP 
                 Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Power 
                 TAU 
                 Tracking Area Update 
               
               
                 SMS 
                 Short Message Service 
                 SS-RSRQ 
                 Synchronization Signal based Reference Signal Received Quality 
                 TB 
                 Transport Block 
               
               
                 SMSF 
                 SMS Function 
                 SS-SINR 
                 Synchronization Signal based Signal to Noise and Interference Ratio 
                 TBS 
                 Transport Block Size 
               
               
                 SMTC 
                 SSB-based Measurement Timing Configuration 
                 SSS 
                 Secondary Synchronization Signal 
                 TBD 
                 To Be Defined 
               
               
                 SN 
                 Secondary Node, Sequence Number 
                 SSSG 
                 Search Space Set Group 
                 TCI 
                 Transmission Configuration Indicator 
               
               
                 SoC 
                 System on Chip 
                 SSSIF 
                 Search Space Set Indicator Fuction 
                 TCP 
                 Transmission Communication Protocol 
               
               
                 SON 
                 Self-Organizing Network 
                 SST 
                 Slice/Service Types 
                 TDD 
                 Time Division Duplex 
               
               
                 SpCell 
                 Special Cell 
                 UDM 
                 Unified Data Management 
                 TDM 
                 Time Division Multiplexing 
               
               
                 SP-CSI-RNTI 
                 Semi-Persistent CSI RNTI 
                 UDP 
                 User Datagram Protocol 
                 TDMA 
                 Time Division Multiple Access 
               
               
                 SPS 
                 Semi-Persistent Scheduling 
                 UDSF 
                 Unstructured Data Storage Network Function 
                 TE 
                 Terminal Equipment 
               
               
                 SQN 
                 Sequence number 
                 UICC 
                 Universal Integrated Circuit Card 
                 TEID 
                 Tunnel End Point Identifier 
               
               
                 SR 
                 Scheduling Request 
                 UL 
                 Uplink 
                 TFT 
                 Traffic Flow Template 
               
               
                 SRB 
                 Signalling Radio Bearer 
                 UM 
                 Unacknowledged Mode 
                 UTRAN 
                 Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network 
               
               
                 SRS 
                 Sounding Reference Signal 
                 UML 
                 Unified Modelling Language 
                 UwPTS 
                 Uplink Pilot Time Slot 
               
               
                 SS 
                 Synchronization Signal 
                 UMTS 
                 Universal Mobile Telecommunications System 
                 V2I 
                 Vehicle-to-Infrastruction 
               
               
                 SSB 
                 Synchronization Signal Block 
                 UP 
                 User Plane 
                 V2P 
                 Vehicle-to-Pedestrian 
               
               
                 TMSI 
                 Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity 
                 UPF 
                 User Plane Function 
                 V2V 
                 Vehicle-to-Vehicle 
               
               
                 TNL 
                 Transport Network Layer 
                 URI 
                 Uniform Resource Identifier 
                 V2X 
                 Vehicle-to-everything 
               
               
                 TPC 
                 Transmit Power Control 
                 URL 
                 Uniform Resource Locator 
                 VIM 
                 Virtualized Infrastructure Manager 
               
               
                 TPMI 
                 Transmitted Precoding Matrix Indicator 
                 URLLC 
                 Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency 
                 VL 
                 Virtual Link, 
               
               
                 TR 
                 Technical Report 
                 USB 
                 Universal Serial Bus 
                 Virtual LAN, VLAN 
                 Virtual Local Area Network 
               
               
                 TRP, TRxP 
                 Transmission Reception Point 
                 USIM 
                 Universal Subscriber Identity Module 
                 VM 
                 Virtual Machine 
               
               
                 TRS 
                 Tracking Reference Signal 
                 USS 
                 UE-specific search space 
                 VNF 
                 Virtualized Network Function 
               
               
                 TRx 
                 Transceiver 
                 UTRA 
                 UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access 
                 VNFFG 
                 VNF Forwarding Graph 
               
               
                 TS 
                 Technical Specifications, Technical Standard 
                   
                   
                 VNFFGD 
                 VNF Forwarding Graph Descriptor 
               
               
                 TTI 
                 Transmission Time Interval 
                   
                   
                 VNFMVNF 
                 Manager 
               
               
                 Tx 
                 Transmission, Transmitting, Transmitter 
                   
                   
                 VoIP 
                 Voice-over-IP, Voice-over- Internet Protocol 
               
               
                 U-RNTI 
                 UTRAN Radio Network Temporary Identity 
                   
                   
                 VPLMN 
                 Visited Public Land Mobile Network 
               
               
                 UART 
                 Universal Asynchronous Receiver and Transmitter 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 UCI 
                 Uplink Control Information 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 UE 
                 User Equipment 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 VPN 
                 Virtual Private Network 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 VRB 
                 Virtual Resource Block 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 WiMAX 
                 Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 WLAN 
                 Wireless Local Area Network 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 WMAN 
                 Wireless Metropolitan Area Network 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 WPAN 
                 Wireless Personal Area Network 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 X2-C 
                 X2-Control plane 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 X2-U 
                 X2-User plane 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 XML 
                 eXtensible Markup Language 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 XRES 
                 EXpected user RESponse 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 XOR 
                 eXclusive OR 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 ZC 
                 Zadoff-Chu 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
               
                 ZP 
                 Zero Power 
                   
                   
                   
                   
               
            
           
         
       
     
     Terminology 
     For the purposes of the present document, the following terms and definitions are applicable to the examples and embodiments discussed herein. 
     The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry. 
     The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. Processing circuitry may include one or more processing cores to execute instructions and one or more memory structures to store program and data information. The term “processor circuitry” may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes. Processing circuitry may include more hardware accelerators, which may be microprocessors, programmable processing devices, or the like. The one or more hardware accelerators may include, for example, computer vision (CV) and/or deep learning (DL) accelerators. The terms “application circuitry” and/or “baseband circuitry” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, “processor circuitry.” 
     The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, network interface cards, and/or the like. 
     The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities and may describe a remote user of network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, reconfigurable mobile device, etc. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface. 
     The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment and/or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to and/or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, router, switch, hub, bridge, radio network controller, RAN device, RAN node, gateway, server, virtualized VNF, NFVI, and/or the like. 
     The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” and/or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices and/or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing and/or networking resources. 
     The term “appliance,” “computer appliance,” or the like, as used herein refers to a computer device or computer system with program code (e.g., software or firmware) that is specifically designed to provide a specific computing resource. A “virtual appliance” is a virtual machine image to be implemented by a hypervisor-equipped device that virtualizes or emulates a computer appliance or otherwise is dedicated to provide a specific computing resource. 
     The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, and/or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, workload units, and/or the like. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by physical hardware element(s). A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, and/or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, system, etc. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing and/or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable. 
     The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with and/or equivalent to “communications channel,” “data communications channel,” “transmission channel,” “data transmission channel,” “access channel,” “data access channel,” “link,” “data link,” “carrier,” “radiofrequency carrier,” and/or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices through a RAT for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information. 
     The terms “instantiate,” “instantiation,” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code. 
     The terms “coupled,” “communicatively coupled,” along with derivatives thereof are used herein. The term “coupled” may mean two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contact with one another, may mean that two or more elements indirectly contact each other but still cooperate or interact with each other, and/or may mean that one or more other elements are coupled or connected between the elements that are said to be coupled with each other. The term “directly coupled” may mean that two or more elements are in direct contact with one another. The term “communicatively coupled” may mean that two or more elements may be in contact with one another by a means of communication including through a wire or other interconnect connection, through a wireless communication channel or link, and/or the like. 
     The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content. 
     The term “SMTC” refers to an SSB-based measurement timing configuration configured by SSB-MeasurementTimingConfiguration. 
     The term “SSB” refers to an SS/PBCH block. 
     The term “a “Primary Cell” refers to the MCG cell, operating on the primary frequency, in which the UE either performs the initial connection establishment procedure or initiates the connection re-establishment procedure. 
     The term “Primary SCG Cell” refers to the SCG cell in which the UE performs random access when performing the Reconfiguration with Sync procedure for DC operation. 
     The term “Secondary Cell” refers to a cell providing additional radio resources on top of a Special Cell for a UE configured with CA. 
     The term “Secondary Cell Group” refers to the subset of serving cells comprising the PSCell and zero or more secondary cells for a UE configured with DC. 
     The term “Serving Cell” refers to the primary cell for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED not configured with CA/DC there is only one serving cell comprising of the primary cell. 
     The term “serving cell” or “serving cells” refers to the set of cells comprising the Special Cell(s) and all secondary cells for a UE in RRC_CONNECTED configured with CA/. 
     The term “Special Cell” refers to the PCell of the MCG or the PSCell of the SCG for DC operation; otherwise, the term “Special Cell” refers to the Pcell.