Patent Publication Number: US-2023136259-A1

Title: Handover without secondary cell group (scg) change

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Mobile device handover occurs when a mobile device is transitioning from a first cell to a different cell. Such transitions can lead to dropped calls or lost information if a mobile device loses communication with the network during handover. 
     SUMMARY 
     According to one innovative aspect of the present disclosure, a method for enhancing UE handover is disclosed. In one aspect, the method can include actions of obtaining, by a first base station, a request for a handover event from a UE, wherein the request includes at least (i) request for access to a primary cell group and (ii) data indicating capabilities of the UE, determining, by the first base station and based on the UE capabilities, that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with a secondary cell group of a base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group of the first base station, generating, by the first base station and based on the determined UE capability, a handover command that instructs the UE to maintain communication with the secondary cell group of the base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group, encoding, by the first base station, the generated handover command for transmission to the UE, and transmitting, by the first base station, the generated handover command to the UE. 
     Other versions include corresponding systems, apparatus, and computer programs to perform the actions of methods defined by instructions encoded on computer readable storage devices. 
     These and other versions may optionally include one or more of the following features. For instance, in some implementations, generating, by the first base station and based on the determined UE capability, a handover command that instructs the UE to maintain communication with the secondary cell group of the base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group can include generating, by the first base station, a handover command that attributes a parameter value of no to a parameter reconfigurwithSync. 
     In some implementations, generating, by the first base station and based on the determined UE capability, a handover command that instructs the UE to maintain communication with the secondary cell group of the base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group can include generating, by the first base station, a handover command that reconfigures a transmission path of UE from a master cell group (MCG) to the secondary cell group (SCG). 
     In some implementations, the method can further include obtaining, by the first base station, data indicating that the UE has determined to reconfigure a transmission path from a master cell group (MCG) to the secondary cell group (SCG) responsive to a determination, by the UE. 
     In some implementations, the method can further include determining, by the first base station, that the handover event requires a security key change, obtaining, by the first base station, data from the UE indicating that handover is complete, based the obtained data from the UE indicating that handover is complete, generating, by the first base station, a second command that provides data indicating the security key change to the UE, encoding, by the first base station, the generated second command for transmission to the UE, and transmitting, by the first base station, the generated second command to the UE. 
     In some implementations, the method can further include determining, by the first base station, that the handover event requires a security key change, generating, by the first base station, a second command that provides data indicating the security key change to the UE, encoding, by the first base station, the generated second command for transmission to the UE, and transmitting, by the first base station, the generated second command to the UE. 
     In some implementations, generating, by the first base station and based on the determined UE capability, a handover command that instructs the UE to maintain communication with the secondary cell group of the base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group can include generating, by the first base station, a handover command that configures the UE to enable handover recovery in the event of handover failure using a SCG link to the first base station. 
     In some implementations, the method can further include after failure of the handover event and when a link between the SCG and the first base station is active: obtaining, by the first base station and from the UE via the SCG, data indicating an indication of a handover event, generating, by the first base station, a subsequent handover command based on the obtained data from the SCG indicating a handover event, encoding, by the first base station, a subsequent handover command for transmission to the UE via the SCG, and transmitting, by the first base station, the encoded subsequent handover command to the UE via the SCG. 
     In some implementations, the data indicating an indication of a handover event is received via L1, L2, or L3 signaling. 
     In some implementations, data indicating an indication of a handover event was received via SRB3 or SRB1/2. 
     In some implementations, data indicating an indication of a handover event was received via the secondary link of a split SRB1/2. 
     In some implementations, the method can further include after failure of the handover event and when a link between the SCG and the first base station is inactive: obtaining, by the first base station and from the UE, using Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling without communication through the SCG, data indicating a handover event, generating, by the first base station, a subsequent handover command based on the obtained data from the UE indicating a handover event, encoding, by the first base station, a subsequent handover command for transmission to the UE, and transmitting, by the first base station, the encoded subsequent handover command to the UE. 
     In some implementations, the method can further include obtaining, by the first base station, data from the UE indicating that handover is complete. 
     In some implementations, the obtained data from the UE indicating that handover is complete is data from the UE initiating random access channel (RACH). 
     In some implementations, the first base station includes the primary cell group. 
     In some implementations, the primary cell group is hosted by a different base station than the first base station. 
     In some implementations, the first base station is a first gNodeB that includes the primary cell group and the base station with the secondary cell group is a different gNodeB. 
     In some implementations, the first base station is a first gNodeB that includes the primary cell group and the base station with the secondary cell group is the first gNodeB. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a flow diagram of an example of a process flow for handover without secondary cell group (SCG) change. 
         FIG.  2    is a flow diagram of an example of a process flow for handover without SCG change that redirects transmission of master cell group (MCG) link to the SCG link during handover. 
         FIG.  3    is a flow diagram of an example of a process flow for handover without SCG change to recover from a handover failure during handover. 
         FIG.  4    is a flowchart of a process performed by a base station for handover without SCG change. 
         FIG.  5    is a flowchart of a process performed by user equipment (UE) of handover without SCG change. 
         FIG.  6    illustrates an example of a wireless communication system. 
         FIG.  7    illustrates an example architecture of a system 
         FIG.  8    illustrates an architecture of a system including a second CN. 
         FIG.  9    illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIG.  10    illustrates an example of a platform. 
         FIG.  11    illustrates example components of baseband circuitry and radio front end modules (RFEM). 
         FIG.  12    illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication. 
         FIG.  13    illustrates components of a core network. 
         FIG.  14    is a block diagram illustrating components of a system to support NFV. 
         FIG.  15    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. 
     
    
    
     These and other aspects of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below and in the accompanying claims. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The present disclosure is directed towards methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer programs to enable UE handover without SCG change. Handover occurs when a UE leaves one cell of a wireless communication network and enters another cell of wirelss communication network. In conventional systems, a UE can lose communication with SCG during handover, which causes, e.g., loss of transmission of voice calls, data transmission, or the like. The present disclosure improves upon such conventional systems by adding new UE capability to maintain communication with an SCG during handover and the enables the UE to inform a base station of the UE&#39;s capabilities when the UE requests access to primary cell group (PCG) of a base station, e.g., gNodeB. 
     After detection of a UE requesting access to a PCB and having capability to maintain communication with SCG during handover, the gNodeB can generate handover commands that configure the UE&#39;s having these capabilities. Handover commands generated by the gNodeB can configure the UE (i) to maintain communication with the SCG during handover, (i) to not reconfigure and sync with an SCG durig handover (e.g., no reconfiwithSync), (iii) to switch a transmission path from a master cell group (MCG) to a SCG, (iv) to link with MCG via the SCG during handover failure, or (v) any combination thereof. 
     The present disclosure also provides multiple methods for updating security keys of UEs after handover. Such methods can be either explicit or implicit. Explicit updating of security keys can occur when the network, e.g., gNodeB, generates and transmits a command that updates the security of the UE. In other implementations, implicit updating of the UE&#39;s security keys can occur. Such implicit updating of security keys can occur autonomously by the UE upon detection, by the UE, of certain events such as, e.g., completion of a handover event. 
       FIG.  1    is a flow diagram of an example of a process flow  100  for handover without secondary cell group (SCG) change. The process flow  100  describes a series of data transmissions between the UE  102 , SCG on an S-nodeB  102 , and PCG on an M-nodeB  106 . 
     The process flow  100  can begin with the UE  102  generating and transmitting  110  a access request to a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 . The access request can include (i) data indicating a request for access to a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 , (ii) data describing the capabilities of the UE  102 , or a combination thereof. The capabilities of the UE  102  can include, for example, data indicating that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover events. Maintaining communication with the SCG of the  104  can include, for example, the UE being capable of transmitting data to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during a handover event, receiving data from the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during a handover event, or a combination thereof. Maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  does not require a constant stream of data being transmitted to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  by the UE  102  or a constant stream of data being received by the UE  102  by the S-nodeB of the SCG  104 . Instead, it merely requires the capability of data transmission from the UE  102  to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  or receipt of data by the UE  102  from the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . Such data transmission or receipt can be periodic or event sporadic in nature. 
     The M-nodeB  106  can receive the access request transmitted at  110  and generate a handover command based on the access request. The handover command can include one or more parameters that can be used to configure the UE  102  for handover based on the UE&#39;s  102  capabilities. For example, the M-nodeB  106  can determine, based on the access request transmitted  110  by the UE and received by the M-nodeB  106 , that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover. Based on such capabilities of the UE  102 , the M-nodeB  106  can generate a handover command that includes parameters that can configure the UE  102  to maintain communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover. The parameters of the generated handover command include data that can configure the UE  102  (i) to maintain communication with the SCG during handover, (ii) to not reconfigure and sync with an SCG durig handover (e.g., no reconfiwithSync), or both. The M-nodeB  106  can transmit  120  the generated handover command to the UE  102 . 
     The UE  102  can receive the handover command transmitted by the M-nodeB  106  using flow  120 . Based on receipt and processing of the handover command, the UE  102  can terminate communication with a MCG of the M-nodeB  106  and provide data to the M-nodeB  106  indicating that the handover event is complete using flow  130 . In some implementations, the data provided to the M-nodeB  106  by the UE  102  can include data that acquires a downlink sync with the M-nodeB  106  initiates an random access channel (RACH) with a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 . During the process, the UE  102  can maintain communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . 
       FIG.  2    is a flow diagram of an example of a process flow  200  for handover without SCG change that redirects transmission of master cell group (MCG) link to the SCG link during handover. The process flow  200  describes a series of data transmissions between the UE  102 , SCG on an S-nodeB  102 , and PCG on an M-nodeB  106 . 
     The process flow  200  can begin with the UE  102  generating and transmitting  210  a access request to a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 . The access request can include (i) data indicating a request for access to a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 , (ii) data describing the capabilities of the UE  102 , or a combination thereof. The capabilities of the UE  102  can include, for example, data indicating that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover events, data indicating the that UE can switch a transmission path from a MCG of the M-nodeB  106  to an SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . 
     The M-nodeB  106  can receive the access request transmitted at  210  and generate a handover command based on the access request. The handover command can include one or more parameters that can be used to configure the UE  102  for handover based on the UE&#39;s  102  capabilities. For example, the M-nodeB  106  can determine, based on the access request transmitted  210  by the UE and received by the M-nodeB  106 , that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover and switching a transmission path from the MCG of the M-nodeB  106  to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . Based on such capabilities of the UE  102 , the M-nodeB  106  can generate a handover command that includes parameters that can configure the UE  102  to maintain communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover and cause the UE  102  to switch a transmission path from the MCG of the M-nodeB  106  to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . The parameters of the generated handover command include data that can configure the UE  102  (i) to maintain communication with the SCG during handover, (ii) to not reconfigure and sync with an SCG during handover (e.g., no reconfiwithSync), (iii) a parameter that causes the UE  102  to switch a transmission path from the MCG of the M-nodeB  16 , or any combination thereof. The M-nodeB  106  can transmit  220  the generated handover command to the UE  102 . 
     The UE  102  can receive the handover command transmitted by the M-nodeB  106  using flow  220 . Based on receipt and processing of the handover command, the UE  102  can terminate communication with a MCG of the M-nodeB  106 , switch a transmission path between the UE  102  and the M-nodeB  106  to a transmission path between the UE  120  and the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 , and then provide data to the M-nodeB  106  indicating that the handover event is complete using flow  230 . In some implementations, the data provided to the M-nodeB  106  by the UE  102  can include data that acquires a downlink sync with the M-nodeB  106  initiates an random access channel (RACH) with a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 . During the process, the UE  102  can maintain communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . 
     In some implementations, the security key of the UE  102  may need to be updated. For example, if M-nodeB  106  is a different base station than the base station to which the UE  102  was previously connected, then the security key of the UE  102  is to be updated. Alternatively, if, for example, the M-nodeB  106  is the same base station as the base station to which the UE  102  was previously connected, then the security key of the UE  102  may not need to be updated. However, the present disclosure is not limited to such examples. Instead, the security keys may be changed for any reason such as, e.g., the Core Network may push out an update to the security keys of all base stations, a subset of. base stations, or the like. 
     For instances, where the security key of the UE  102  needs to be updated, a variety of different approaches can be taken to updating the security key of the UE  102 . In some implementations, an explicit approach to updating a security key can be implemented by the M-nodeB  106 . In such implementations, the M-nodeB  106  can use a command to configure the UE with an updated security key. The command can be sent using an L1 command, an L2 command, or an L3 command and transmitted to the UE  102  using the flow  240 . In other implementations, an implicit approach may be used to update the security key of the UE  102 . In such implementations, the UE  102  can be configured to autonomously update its security key. For example, the UE  102  can be configured to update its security key at a particular time such as, e.g., upon completion of the handover process. 
       FIG.  3    is a flow diagram of an example of a process flow  300  for handover without SCG change to recover from a handover failure during handover. The process flow  300  describes a series of data transmissions between the UE  102 , SCG on an S-nodeB  102 , and PCG on an M-nodeB  106 . 
     The process flow  300  can begin with the UE  102  generating and transmitting  310  an access request to a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 . The access request can include (i) data indicating a request for access to a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 , (ii) data describing the capabilities of the UE  102 , or a combination thereof. The capabilities of the UE  102  can include, for example, data indicating that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover events, data indicating that the UE  102  supports implementation of handover failure resolution via the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 , or a combination thereof. 
     The M-nodeB  106  can receive the access request transmitted at  310  and generate a handover command based on the access request. The handover command can include one or more parameters that can be used to configure the UE  102  for handover based on the UE&#39;s  102  capabilities. For example, the M-nodeB  106  can determine, based on the access request transmitted  310  by the UE  102  and received by the M-nodeB  106 , that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  during handover, supporting handover failure resolution via the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 , or a combination of both. Based on such capabilities of the UE  102 , the M-nodeB  106  can generate a handover command that includes parameters that can configure the UE  102  to, for example, support handover failure resolution via the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . The parameters of the generated handover command include data that can configure the UE  102  (i) to maintain communication with the SCG during handover, (ii) to not reconfigure and sync with an SCG durig handover (e.g., no reconfiwithSync), (iii) implement handover failure via the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 , or (iv) a combination thereof. The M-nodeB  106  can transmit  320  the generated handover command to the UE  102 . 
     In this example, The UE  102  can receive the handover command transmitted by the M-nodeB  106  using flow  120 . Based on receipt and processing of the handover command, the UE  102  can terminate communication with a MCG of the M-nodeB  106  and maintain communication with the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . However, in this implementation, handover fails and UE  102  does not provide data to the M-nodeB  106  indicating that handover is complete Accordingly, though UE  102  can begin the process of downlink sync with the M-nodeB  106  initiate a random access channel (RACH) with a PCG of the M-nodeB  106 , the process fails. 
     At this point, the UE  102  can declare  330  that a handover failure has occurred. The UE 102  can initiate handover failure resolution via the SCG of the S-nodeB  102 . This can include the UE  102  transmitting  342  data that corresponds to an indication of handover failure to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 . The SCG of the S-nodeB  104  can forward  344  the data corresponding to an indication of handover failure to the M-nodeB  106 . Then, based on receipt of data indicating handover failure that was forwarded to the M-nodeB  106  via the SCG of the S-nodeB  104 , the M-nodeB can generate a subsequent handover command. In some implementations, the generated subsequent handover command can be the same as one or more of the handover commands of process flows  100  and  200 . In such implementations, the M-nodeB  106  can attempt to transmit the subsequent handover command to the UE  102  as described with reference to process flows  100  and  200 . In other implementations, the generated subsequent handover command can be forwarded  352  to the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  and then the SCG of the S-nodeB  104  can forward  354  the subsequent handover command to the UE  102 . The process flow  300  can then continue as described with reference to the process flows of  FIG.  1  or  2   , e.g., with the UE  102  transmitting data indicating completion of the handover process, the updating of security keys, or a combination thereof. 
     In some implementations, the data transmitted at  342 ,  344 ,  351 ,  354  can be transmitted using L1, L2, or L3 signaling. In some implementations, the data transmitted at  342 ,  344 ,  351 ,  354  can be transmitted using the SRB delivery method. For example, in such implementations, the UE can deliver the HOF indication  342  via SRB3 or SRB1/2, which is carried via SRB3. Alternatively, the UE can deliver the HOF indication  342  using a secondary link of the split SRB 1/2. In these or other implementations, when the handover failure is detected and an SCG link is invalid the UE can trigger the legacy handover failure handling such as, e.g., triggering RRConnectionRestablishment to procedure. 
       FIG.  4    is a flowchart of a process  400  performed by a base station for handover without SCG change. The process  400  can include, for example, obtaining, by a first base station, a request for a handover event from a UE, wherein the request includes at least (i) request for access to a primary cell group and (ii) data indicating capabilities of the UE ( 410 ), determining, by the first base station and based on the UE capabilities, that the UE is capable of maintaining communication with a secondary cell group of a base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group of the first base station ( 420 ), generating, by the first base station and based on the determined UE capability, a handover command that instructs the UE to maintain communication with the secondary cell group of the base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group ( 430 ), encoding, by the first base station, the generated handover command for transmission to the UE ( 440 ), and transmitting, by the first base station, the generated handover command to the UE ( 450 ). 
       FIG.  5    is a flowchart of a process  500  performed by user equipment (UE) of handover without SCG change. The process  500  can include, for example, generating, by a UE, a request for handover event, wherein the request includes at least (i) a request for access to a primary cell group of a first base station and (ii) data indicating capabilities of the UE ( 510 ), encoding, by the UE, the generated request for a handover event for transmission to the first base station ( 520 ), transmitting, by the UE, the encoded request for handover event to the first base station ( 530 ), receiving, by the UE, a handover command from the first base station that instructs the UE to maintain communication with a secondary cell group of a base station during handover of the UE to the primary cell group ( 540 ), maintaining, by the UE, communication with the secondary cell group ( 550 ), and providing, by the UE, data to the first base station indicating that handover is complete ( 560 ). 
       FIG.  6    illustrates an example of a wireless communication system  600 . For purposes of convenience and without limitation, the example system  100  is described in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Fifth Generation (5G) New Radio (NR) communication standards as defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technical specifications. More specifically, the wireless communication system  600  is described in the context of a Non-Standalone (NSA) networks that incorporate both LTE and NR, for example, E-UTRA (Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access)-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) networks, and NE-DC networks. However, the wireless communication system  600  may also be a Standalone (SA) network that incorporates only NR. Furthermore, other types of communication standards are possible, including future 3GPP systems (e.g., Sixth Generation (6G)) systems, IEEE 802.16 protocols (e.g., WMAN, WiMAX, etc.), or the like. 
     As shown by  FIG.  6   , the system  600  includes UE  601   a  and UE  601   b  (collectively referred to as “UEs  601 ” or “UE  601 ”). In this example, UEs  601  are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, smartphones, feature phones, tablet computers, wearable computer devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), pagers, wireless handsets, desktop computers, laptop computers, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), in-car entertainment (ICE) devices, an Instrument Cluster (IC), head-up display (HUD) devices, onboard diagnostic (OBD) devices, dashtop mobile equipment (DME), mobile data terminals (MDTs), Electronic Engine Management System (EEMS), electronic/engine control units (ECUs), electronic/engine control modules (ECMs), embedded systems, microcontrollers, control modules, engine management systems (EMS), networked or “smart” appliances, MTC devices, M2M, IoT devices, and/or the like. 
     In some embodiments, any of the UEs  601  may be IoT UEs, which may comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as M2M or MTC for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a PLMN, ProSe or D2D communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network. 
     The UEs  601  may be configured to connect, for example, communicatively couple, with RAN  610 . In embodiments, the RAN  610  may be an NG RAN or a 5G RAN, an E-UTRAN, or a legacy RAN, such as a UTRAN or GERAN. As used herein, the term “NG RAN” or the like may refer to a RAN  610  that operates in an NR or 5G system  600 , and the term “E-UTRAN” or the like may refer to a RAN  610  that operates in an LTE or 4G system  600 . The UEs  601  utilize connections (or channels)  603  and  604 , respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below). 
     In this example, the connections  603  and  604  are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a GSM protocol, a CDMA network protocol, a PTT protocol, a POC protocol, a UMTS protocol, a 3GPP LTE protocol, an Advanced long term evolution (LTE-A) protocol, a LTE-based access to unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U), a 5G protocol, a NR protocol, an NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) protocol, and/or any of the other communications protocols discussed herein. In embodiments, the UEs  601  may directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface  605 . The ProSe interface  605  may alternatively be referred to as a SL interface  605  and may comprise one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a PSCCH, a PSSCH, a PSDCH, and a PSBCH. 
     The UE  601   b  is shown to be configured to access an AP  606  (also referred to as “WLAN node  606 ,” “WLAN  606 ,” “WLAN Termination  606 ,” “WT  606 ” or the like) via connection  607 . The connection  607  can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP  606  would comprise a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP  606  is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). In various embodiments, the UE  601   b , RAN  610 , and AP  606  may be configured to utilize LWA operation and/or LWIP operation. The LWA operation may involve the UE  601   b  in RRC_CONNECTED being configured by a RAN node  611   a - b  to utilize resources of LTE and WLAN. LWIP operation may involve the UE  601   b  using WLAN resources (e.g., connection  607 ) via IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the connection  607 . IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets. 
     The RAN  610  can include one or more AN nodes or RAN nodes  611   a  and  611   b  (collectively referred to as “RAN nodes  611 ” or “RAN node  611 ”) that enable the connections  603  and  604 . As used herein, the terms “access node,” “access point,” or the like may describe equipment that provides the radio baseband functions for data and/or voice connectivity between a network and one or more users. These access nodes can be referred to as BS, gNBs, RAN nodes, eNBs, NodeBs, RSUs, TRxPs or TRPs, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). As used herein, the term “NG RAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node  611  that operates in an NR or 5G system  600  (for example, a gNB), and the term “E-UTRAN node” or the like may refer to a RAN node  611  that operates in an LTE or 4G system  600  (e.g., an eNB). According to various embodiments, the RAN nodes  611  may be implemented as one or more of a dedicated physical device such as a macrocell base station, and/or a low power (LP) base station for providing femtocells, picocells or other like cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells. 
     In some embodiments, all or parts of the RAN nodes  611  may be implemented as one or more software entities running on server computers as part of a virtual network, which may be referred to as a CRAN and/or a virtual baseband unit pool (vBBUP). In these embodiments, the CRAN or vBBUP may implement a RAN function split, such as a PDCP split wherein RRC and PDCP layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and other L2 protocol entities are operated by individual RAN nodes  611 ; a MAC/PHY split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, and MAC layers are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and the PHY layer is operated by individual RAN nodes  611 ; or a “lower PHY” split wherein RRC, PDCP, RLC, MAC layers and upper portions of the PHY layer are operated by the CRAN/vBBUP and lower portions of the PHY layer are operated by individual RAN nodes  611 . This virtualized framework allows the freed-up processor cores of the RAN nodes  611  to perform other virtualized applications. In some implementations, an individual RAN node  611  may represent individual gNB-DUs that are connected to a gNB-CU via individual F1 interfaces (not shown by  FIG.  6   ). In these implementations, the gNB-DUs may include one or more remote radio heads or RFEMs (see, e.g.,  FIG.  9   ), and the gNB-CU may be operated by a server that is located in the RAN  610  (not shown) or by a server pool in a similar manner as the CRAN/vBBUP. Additionally or alternatively, one or more of the RAN nodes  611  may be next generation eNBs (ng-eNBs), which are RAN nodes that provide E-UTRA user plane and control plane protocol terminations toward the UEs  601 , and are connected to a 5GC (e.g., CN  820  of  FIG.  8   ) via an NG interface (discussed infra). 
     In V2X scenarios one or more of the RAN nodes  611  may be or act as RSUs. The term “Road Side Unit” or “RSU” may refer to any transportation infrastructure entity used for V2X communications. An RSU may be implemented in or by a suitable RAN node or a stationary (or relatively stationary) UE, where an RSU implemented in or by a UE may be referred to as a “UE-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by an eNB may be referred to as an “eNB-type RSU,” an RSU implemented in or by 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  601  (vUEs  601 ). 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 operate on the 5.9 GHz Direct Short Range Communications (DSRC) band to 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 operate on the cellular V2X band to provide the aforementioned low latency communications, as well as other cellular communications services. Additionally or alternatively, the RSU may operate as a Wi-Fi hotspot (2.4 GHz band) and/or provide connectivity to one or more cellular networks to provide uplink and downlink communications. The computing device(s) and some or all of the radiofrequency circuitry 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 and/or a backhaul network. 
     Any of the RAN nodes  611  can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs  601 . In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes  611  can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN  610  including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. 
     In embodiments, the UEs  601  can be configured to communicate using OFDM communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes  611  over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an OFDMA communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a SC-FDMA communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers. 
     In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes  611  to the UEs  601 , while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks. 
     According to various embodiments, the UEs  601  and the RAN nodes  611  communicate data (for example, transmit and receive) data over a licensed medium (also referred to as the “licensed spectrum” and/or the “licensed band”) and an unlicensed shared medium (also referred to as the “unlicensed spectrum” and/or the “unlicensed band”). The licensed spectrum may include channels that operate in the frequency range of approximately 400 MHz to approximately 3.8 GHz, whereas the unlicensed spectrum may include the 5 GHz band. NR in the unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U, and LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, licensed assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire. 
     To operate in the unlicensed spectrum, the UEs  601  and the RAN nodes  611  may operate using LAA, eLAA, and/or feLAA mechanisms. In these implementations, the UEs  601  and the RAN nodes  611  may perform one or more known medium-sensing operations and/or carrier-sensing operations in order to determine whether one or more channels in the unlicensed spectrum is unavailable or otherwise occupied prior to transmitting in the unlicensed spectrum. The medium/carrier sensing operations may be performed according to a listen-before-talk (LBT) protocol. 
     LBT is a mechanism whereby equipment (for example, UEs  601  RAN nodes  611 , etc.) senses a medium (for example, a channel or carrier frequency) and transmits when the medium is sensed to be idle (or when a specific channel in the medium is sensed to be unoccupied). The medium sensing operation may include CCA, which utilizes at least ED to determine the presence or absence of other signals on a channel in order to determine if a channel is occupied or clear. This LBT mechanism allows cellular/LAA networks to coexist with incumbent systems in the unlicensed spectrum and with other LAA networks. ED may include sensing RF energy across an intended transmission band for a period of time and comparing the sensed RF energy to a predefined or configured threshold. 
     Typically, the incumbent systems in the 5 GHz band are WLANs based on IEEE 802.11 technologies. WLAN employs a contention-based channel access mechanism, called CSMA/CA. Here, when a WLAN node (e.g., a mobile station (MS) such as UE  601 , AP  606 , or the like) intends to transmit, the WLAN node may first perform CCA before transmission. Additionally, a backoff mechanism is used to avoid collisions in situations where more than one WLAN node senses the channel as idle and transmits at the same time. The backoff mechanism may be a counter that is drawn randomly within the CWS, which is increased exponentially upon the occurrence of collision and reset to a minimum value when the transmission succeeds. The LBT mechanism designed for LAA is somewhat similar to the CSMA/CA of WLAN. In some implementations, the LBT procedure for DL or UL transmission bursts including PDSCH or PUSCH transmissions, respectively, may have an LAA contention window that is variable in length between X and Y ECCA slots, where X and Y are minimum and maximum values for the CWSs for LAA. In one example, the minimum CWS for an LAA transmission may be 9 microseconds (s); however, the size of the CWS and a MCOT (for example, a transmission burst) may be based on governmental regulatory requirements. 
     The LAA mechanisms are built upon CA technologies of LTE-Advanced systems. In CA, each aggregated carrier is referred to as a CC. A CC may have a bandwidth of 1.4, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 20 MHz and a maximum of five CCs can be aggregated, and therefore, a maximum aggregated bandwidth is 100 MHz. In FDD systems, the number of aggregated carriers can be different for DL and UL, where the number of UL CCs is equal to or lower than the number of DL component carriers. In some cases, individual CCs can have a different bandwidth than other CCs. In TDD systems, the number of CCs as well as the bandwidths of each CC is usually the same for DL and UL. 
     CA also comprises individual serving cells to provide individual CCs. The coverage of the serving cells may differ, for example, because CCs on different frequency bands will experience different pathloss. A primary service cell or PCell may provide a PCC for both UL and DL, and may handle RRC and NAS related activities. The other serving cells are referred to as SCells, and each SCell may provide an individual SCC for both UL and DL. The SCCs may be added and removed as required, while changing the PCC may require the UE  601  to undergo a handover. In LAA, eLAA, and feLAA, some or all of the SCells may operate in the unlicensed spectrum (referred to as “LAA SCells”), and the LAA SCells are assisted by a PCell operating in the licensed spectrum. When a UE is configured with more than one LAA SCell, the UE may receive UL grants on the configured LAA SCells indicating different PUSCH starting positions within a same subframe. 
     The PDSCH carries user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs  601 . The PDCCH carries information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs  601  about the transport format, resource allocation, and HARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE  601   b  within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes  611  based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs  601 . The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs  601 . 
     The PDCCH uses CCEs to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as REGs. Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the DCI and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8). 
     Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an EPDCCH that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more ECCEs. Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an EREGs. An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations. 
     The RAN nodes  611  may be configured to communicate with one another via interface  612 . In embodiments where the system  600  is an LTE system (e.g., when CN  620  is an EPC  720  as in  FIG.  7   ), the interface  612  may be an X2 interface  612 . The X2 interface may be defined between two or more RAN nodes  611  (e.g., two or more eNBs and the like) that connect to EPC  620 , and/or between two eNBs connecting to EPC  620 . In some implementations, the X2 interface may include an X2 user plane interface (X2-U) and an X2 control plane interface (X2-C). The X2-U may provide flow control mechanisms for user data packets transferred over the X2 interface, and may be used to communicate information about the delivery of user data between eNBs. For example, the X2-U may provide specific sequence number information for user data transferred from a MeNB to an SeNB; information about successful in sequence delivery of PDCP PDUs to a UE  601  from an SeNB for user data; information of PDCP PDUs that were not delivered to a UE  601 ; information about a current minimum desired buffer size at the SeNB for transmitting to the UE user data; and the like. The X2-C may provide intra-LTE access mobility functionality, including context transfers from source to target eNBs, user plane transport control, etc.; load management functionality; as well as inter-cell interference coordination functionality. 
     In embodiments where the system  600  is a 5G or NR system (e.g., when CN  620  is an 5GC  820  as in  FIG.  8   ), the interface  612  may be an Xn interface  612 . The Xn interface is defined between two or more RAN nodes  611  (e.g., two or more gNBs and the like) that connect to 5GC  620 , between a RAN node  611  (e.g., a gNB) connecting to 5GC  620  and an eNB, and/or between two eNBs connecting to 5GC  620 . In some implementations, the Xn interface may include an Xn user plane (Xn-U) interface and an Xn control plane (Xn-C) interface. The Xn-U may provide non-guaranteed delivery of user plane PDUs and support/provide data forwarding and flow control functionality. The Xn-C may provide management and error handling functionality, functionality to manage the Xn-C interface; mobility support for UE  601  in a connected mode (e.g., CM-CONNECTED) including functionality to manage the UE mobility for connected mode between one or more RAN nodes  611 . The mobility support may include context transfer from an old (source) serving RAN node  611  to new (target) serving RAN node  611 ; and control of user plane tunnels between old (source) serving RAN node  611  to new (target) serving RAN node  611 . A protocol stack of the Xn-U may include a transport network layer built on Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer, and a GTP-U layer on top of a UDP and/or IP layer(s) to carry user plane PDUs. The Xn-C protocol stack may include an application layer signaling protocol (referred to as Xn Application Protocol (Xn-AP)) and a transport network layer that is built on SCTP. The SCTP may be on top of an IP layer, and may provide the guaranteed delivery of application layer messages. In the transport IP layer, point-to-point transmission is used to deliver the signaling PDUs. In other implementations, the Xn-U protocol stack and/or the Xn-C protocol stack may be same or similar to the user plane and/or control plane protocol stack(s) shown and described herein. 
     The RAN  610  is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network-in this embodiment, core network (CN)  620 . The CN  620  may comprise a plurality of network elements  622 , which are configured to offer various data and telecommunications services to customers/subscribers (e.g., users of UEs  601 ) who are connected to the CN  620  via the RAN  610 . The components of the CN  620  may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, NFV may be utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN  620  may be referred to as a network slice, and a logical instantiation of a portion of the CN  620  may be referred to as a network sub-slice. NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions. 
     Generally, the application server  630  may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS PS domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). The application server  630  can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., VoIP sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs  601  via the EPC  620 . 
     In embodiments, the CN  620  may be a 5GC (referred to as “5GC  620 ” or the like), and the RAN  610  may be connected with the CN  620  via an NG interface  613 . In embodiments, the NG interface  613  may be split into two parts, an NG user plane (NG-U) interface  614 , which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes  611  and a UPF, and the S1 control plane (NG-C) interface  615 , which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes  611  and AMFs. Embodiments where the CN  620  is a 5GC  620  are discussed in more detail with regard to  FIG.  8   . 
     In embodiments, the CN  620  may be a 5G CN (referred to as “5GC  620 ” or the like), while in other embodiments, the CN  620  may be an EPC). Where CN  620  is an EPC (referred to as “EPC  620 ” or the like), the RAN  610  may be connected with the CN  620  via an S1 interface  613 . In embodiments, the S1 interface  613  may be split into two parts, an S1 user plane (S1-U) interface  614 , which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes  611  and the S-GW, and the S1-MME interface  615 , which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes  611  and MMEs. 
       FIG.  7    illustrates an example architecture of a system  700  including a first CN  720 , in accordance with various embodiments. In this example, system  700  may implement the LTE standard wherein the CN  720  is an EPC  720  that corresponds with CN  620  of  FIG.  6   . Additionally, the UE  701  may be the same or similar as the UEs  601  of  FIG.  6   , and the E-UTRAN  710  may be a RAN that is the same or similar to the RAN  610  of  FIG.  6   , and which may include RAN nodes  611  discussed previously. The CN  720  may comprise MMES  721 , an S-GW  722 , a P-GW  723 , a HSS  724 , and a SGSN  725 . 
     The MMES  721  may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy SGSN, and may implement MM functions to keep track of the current location of a UE  701 . The MMES  721  may perform various MM procedures to manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. MM (also referred to as “EPS MM” or “EMM” in E-UTRAN systems) may refer to all applicable procedures, methods, data storage, etc. That are used to maintain knowledge about a present location of the UE  701 , provide user identity confidentiality, and/or perform other like services to users/subscribers. Each UE  701  and the MME  721  may include an MM or EMM sublayer, and an MM context may be established in the UE  701  and the MME  721  when an attach procedure is successfully completed. The MM context may be a data structure or database object that stores MM-related information of the UE  701 . The MMEs  721  may be coupled with the HSS  724  via an S6a reference point, coupled with the SGSN  725  via an S3 reference point, and coupled with the S-GW  722  via an S11 reference point. 
     The SGSN  725  may be a node that serves the UE  701  by tracking the location of an individual UE  701  and performing security functions. In addition, the SGSN  725  may perform Inter-EPC node signaling for mobility between 2G/3G and E-UTRAN 3GPP access networks; PDN and S-GW selection as specified by the MMEs  721 ; handling of UE  701  time zone functions as specified by the MMEs  721 ; and MME selection for handovers to E-UTRAN 3GPP access network. The S3 reference point between the MMEs  721  and the SGSN  725  may enable user and bearer information exchange for inter-3GPP access network mobility in idle and/or active states. 
     The HSS  724  may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities&#39; handling of communication sessions. The EPC  720  may comprise one or several HSSs  724 , depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS  724  can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. An S6a reference point between the HSS  724  and the MMEs  721  may enable transfer of subscription and authentication data for authenticating/authorizing user access to the EPC  720  between HSS  724  and the MMEs  721 . 
     The S-GW  722  may terminate the S1 interface  613  (“S1-U” in  FIG.  7   ) toward the RAN  710 , and routes data packets between the RAN  710  and the EPC  720 . In addition, the S-GW  722  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 S11 reference point between the S-GW  722  and the MMEs  721  may provide a control plane between the MMES  721  and the S-GW  722 . The S-GW  722  may be coupled with the P-GW  723  via an S5 reference point. 
     The P-GW  723  may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN  730 . The P-GW  723  may route data packets between the EPC  720  and external networks such as a network including the application server  630  (alternatively referred to as an “AF”) via an IP interface  625  (see e.g.,  FIG.  6   ). In embodiments, the P-GW  723  may be communicatively coupled to an application server (application server  630  of  FIG.  6    or PDN  730  in  FIG.  7   ) via an IP communications interface  625  (see, e.g.,  FIG.  6   ). The S5 reference point between the P-GW  723  and the S-GW  722  may provide user plane tunneling and tunnel management between the P-GW  723  and the S-GW  722 . The S5 reference point may also be used for S-GW  722  relocation due to UE  701  mobility and if the S-GW  722  needs to connect to a non-collocated P-GW  723  for the required PDN connectivity. The P-GW  723  may further include a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection (e.g., PCEF (not shown)). Additionally, the SGi reference point between the P-GW  723  and the packet data network (PDN)  730  may be an operator external public, a private PDN, or an intra operator packet data network, for example, for provision of IMS services. The P-GW  723  may be coupled with a PCRF  726  via a Gx reference point. 
     PCRF  726  is the policy and charging control element of the EPC  720 . In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF  726  in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE  701 &#39;s Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE  701 &#39;s IP-CAN session, a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within an HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF  726  may be communicatively coupled to the application server  730  via the P-GW  723 . The application server  730  may signal the PCRF  726  to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate QoS and charging parameters. The PCRF  726  may provision this rule into a PCEF (not shown) with the appropriate TFT and QCI, which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server  730 . The Gx reference point between the PCRF  726  and the P-GW  723  may allow for the transfer of QoS policy and charging rules from the PCRF  726  to PCEF in the P-GW  723 . An Rx reference point may reside between the PDN  730  (or “AF  730 ”) and the PCRF  726 . 
       FIG.  8    illustrates an architecture of a system  800  including a second CN  820  in accordance with various embodiments. The system  800  is shown to include a UE  801 , which may be the same or similar to the UEs  601  and UE  701  discussed previously; a (R)AN  810 , which may be the same or similar to the RAN  610  and RAN  710  discussed previously, and which may include RAN nodes  611  discussed previously; and a DN  803 , which may be, for example, operator services, Internet access or 3rd party services; and a 5GC  820 . The 5GC  820  may include an AUSF  822 ; an AMF  821 ; a SMF  824 ; a NEF  823 ; a PCF  826 ; a NRF  825 ; a UDM  827 ; an AF  828 ; a UPF  802 ; and a NSSF  829 . 
     The UPF  802  may act as an anchor point for intra-RAT and inter-RAT mobility, an external PDU session point of interconnect to DN  803 , and a branching point to support multi-homed PDU session. The UPF  802  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  802  may include an uplink classifier to support routing traffic flows to a data network. The DN  803  may represent various network operator services, Internet access, or third party services. DN  803  may include, or be similar to, application server  630  discussed previously. The UPF  802  may interact with the SMF  824  via an N4 reference point between the SMF  824  and the UPF  802 . 
     The AUSF  822  may store data for authentication of UE  801  and handle authentication-related functionality. The AUSF  822  may facilitate a common authentication framework for various access types. The AUSF  822  may communicate with the AMF  821  via an N12 reference point between the AMF  821  and the AUSF  822 ; and may communicate with the UDM  827  via an N13 reference point between the UDM  827  and the AUSF  822 . Additionally, the AUSF  822  may exhibit an Nausf service-based interface. 
     The AMF  821  may be responsible for registration management (e.g., for registering UE  801 , etc.), connection management, reachability management, mobility management, and lawful interception of AMF-related events, and access authentication and authorization. The AMF  821  may be a termination point for the N11 reference point between the AMF  821  and the SMF  824 . The AMF  821  may provide transport for SM messages between the UE  801  and the SMF  824 , and act as a transparent proxy for routing SM messages. AMF  821  may also provide transport for SMS messages between UE  801  and an SMSF (not shown by  FIG.  8   ). AMF  821  may act as SEAF, which may include interaction with the AUSF  822  and the UE  801 , receipt of an intermediate key that was established as a result of the UE  801  authentication process. Where USIM based authentication is used, the AMF  821  may retrieve the security material from the AUSF  822 . AMF  821  may also include a SCM function, which receives a key from the SEA that it uses to derive access-network specific keys. Furthermore, AMF  821  may be a termination point of a RAN CP interface, which may include or be an N2 reference point between the (R)AN  810  and the AMF  821 ; and the AMF  821  may be a termination point of NAS (N1) signaling, and perform NAS ciphering and integrity protection. 
     AMF  821  may also support NAS signaling with a UE  801  over an N3 IWF interface. The N3IWF may be used to provide access to untrusted entities. N3IWF may be a termination point for the N2 interface between the (R)AN  810  and the AMF  821  for the control plane, and may be a termination point for the N3 reference point between the (R)AN  810  and the UPF  802  for the user plane. As such, the AMF  821  may handle N2 signaling from the SMF  824  and the AMF  821  for PDU sessions and QoS, encapsulate/de-encapsulate packets for IPSec and N3 tunneling, mark N3 user-plane packets in the uplink, and enforce QoS corresponding to N3 packet marking taking into account QoS requirements associated with such marking received over N2. N3IWF may also relay uplink and downlink control-plane NAS signaling between the UE  801  and AMF  821  via an N1 reference point between the UE  801  and the AMF  821 , and relay uplink and downlink user-plane packets between the UE  801  and UPF  802 . The N3IWF also provides mechanisms for IPsec tunnel establishment with the UE  801 . The AMF  821  may exhibit an Namf service-based interface, and may be a termination point for an N14 reference point between two AMFs  821  and an N17 reference point between the AMF  821  and a 5G-EIR (not shown by  FIG.  8   ). 
     The UE  801  may need to register with the AMF  821  in order to receive network services. RM is used to register or deregister the UE  801  with the network (e.g., AMF  821 ), and establish a UE context in the network (e.g., AMF  821 ). The UE  801  may operate in an RM-REGISTERED state or an RM-DEREGISTERED state. In the RM DEREGISTERED state, the UE  801  is not registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF  821  holds no valid location or routing information for the UE  801  so the UE  801  is not reachable by the AMF  821 . In the RM REGISTERED state, the UE  801  is registered with the network, and the UE context in AMF  821  may hold a valid location or routing information for the UE  801  so the UE  801  is reachable by the AMF  821 . In the RM-REGISTERED state, the UE  801  may perform mobility Registration Update procedures, perform periodic Registration Update procedures triggered by expiration of the periodic update timer (e.g., to notify the network that the UE  801  is still active), and perform a Registration Update procedure to update UE capability information or to re-negotiate protocol parameters with the network, among others. 
     The AMF  821  may store one or more RM contexts for the UE  801 , where each RM context is associated with a specific access to the network. The RM context may be a data structure, database object, etc. That indicates or stores, inter alia, a registration state per access type and the periodic update timer. The AMF  821  may also store a 5GC MM context that may be the same or similar to the (E)MM context discussed previously. In various embodiments, the AMF  821  may store a CE mode B Restriction parameter of the UE  801  in an associated MM context or RM context. The AMF  821  may also derive the value, when needed, from the UE&#39;s usage setting parameter already stored in the UE context (and/or MM/RM context). 
     CM may be used to establish and release a signaling connection between the UE  801  and the AMF  821  over the N1 interface. The signaling connection is used to enable NAS signaling exchange between the UE  801  and the CN  820 , and comprises both the signaling connection between the UE and the AN (e.g., RRC connection or UE-N3IWF connection for non-3GPP access) and the N2 connection for the UE  801  between the AN (e.g., RAN  810 ) and the AMF  821 . The UE  801  may operate in one of two CM states, CM-IDLE mode or CM-CONNECTED mode. When the UE  801  is operating in the CM-IDLE state/mode, the UE  801  may have no NAS signaling connection established with the AMF  821  over the N1 interface, and there may be (R)AN  810  signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE  801 . When the UE  801  is operating in the CM-CONNECTED state/mode, the UE  801  may have an established NAS signaling connection with the AMF  821  over the N1 interface, and there may be a (R)AN  810  signaling connection (e.g., N2 and/or N3 connections) for the UE  801 . Establishment of an N2 connection between the (R)AN  810  and the AMF  821  may cause the UE  801  to transition from CM-IDLE mode to CM-CONNECTED mode, and the UE  801  may transition from the CM-CONNECTED mode to the CM-IDLE mode when N2 signaling between the (R)AN  810  and the AMF  821  is released. 
     The SMF  824  may be responsible for SM (e.g., session establishment, modify and release, including tunnel maintain between UPF and AN node); UE IP address allocation and management (including optional authorization); selection and control of UP function; configuring traffic steering at UPF to route traffic to proper destination; termination of interfaces toward policy control functions; controlling part of policy enforcement 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 over N2 to AN; 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 a UE  801  and a data network (DN)  803  identified by a Data Network Name (DNN). PDU sessions may be established upon UE  801  request, modified upon UE  801  and 5GC  820  request, and released upon UE  801  and 5GC  820  request using NAS SM signaling exchanged over the N1 reference point between the UE  801  and the SMF  824 . Upon request from an application server, the 5GC  820  may trigger a specific application in the UE  801 . In response to receipt of the trigger message, the UE  801  may pass the trigger message (or relevant parts/information of the trigger message) to one or more identified applications in the UE  801 . The identified application(s) in the UE  801  may establish a PDU session to a specific DNN. The SMF  824  may check whether the UE  801  requests are compliant with user subscription information associated with the UE  801 . In this regard, the SMF  824  may retrieve and/or request to receive update notifications on SMF  824  level subscription data from the UDM  827 . 
     The SMF  824  may include the following roaming functionality: handling local enforcement to apply QoS SLAB (VPLMN); charging data collection and charging interface (VPLMN); lawful intercept (in VPLMN for SM events and interface to LI system); and support for interaction with external DN for transport of signaling for PDU session authorization/authentication by external DN. An N16 reference point between two SMFs  824  may be included in the system  800 , which may be between another SMF  824  in a visited network and the SMF  824  in the home network in roaming scenarios. Additionally, the SMF  824  may exhibit the Nsmf service-based interface. 
     The NEF  823  may provide means for securely exposing the services and capabilities provided by 3GPP network functions for third party, internal exposure/re-exposure, Application Functions (e.g., AF  828 ), edge computing or fog computing systems, etc. In such embodiments, the NEF  823  may authenticate, authorize, and/or throttle the AFs. NEF  823  may also translate information exchanged with the AF  828  and information exchanged with internal network functions. For example, the NEF  823  may translate between an AF-Service-Identifier and an internal 5GC information. NEF  823  may also receive information from other network functions (NFs) based on exposed capabilities of other network functions. This information may be stored at the NEF  823  as structured data, or at a data storage NF using standardized interfaces. The stored information can then be re-exposed by the NEF  823  to other NFs and AFs, and/or used for other purposes such as analytics. Additionally, the NEF  823  may exhibit an Nnef service-based interface. 
     The NRF  825  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  825  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  825  may exhibit the Nnrf service-based interface. 
     The PCF  826  may provide policy rules to control plane function(s) to enforce them, and may also support unified policy framework to govern network behavior. The PCF  826  may also implement an FE to access subscription information relevant for policy decisions in a UDR of the UDM  827 . The PCF  826  may communicate with the AMF  821  via an N15 reference point between the PCF  826  and the AMF  821 , which may include a PCF  826  in a visited network and the AMF  821  in case of roaming scenarios. The PCF  826  may communicate with the AF  828  via an N5 reference point between the PCF  826  and the AF  828 ; and with the SMF  824  via an N7 reference point between the PCF  826  and the SMF  824 . The system  800  and/or CN  820  may also include an N24 reference point between the PCF  826  (in the home network) and a PCF  826  in a visited network. Additionally, the PCF  826  may exhibit an Npcf service-based interface. 
     The UDM  827  may handle subscription-related information to support the network entities&#39; handling of communication sessions, and may store subscription data of UE  801 . For example, subscription data may be communicated between the UDM  827  and the AMF  821  via an N8 reference point between the UDM  827  and the AMF. The UDM  827  may include two parts, an application FE and a UDR (the FE and UDR are not shown by  FIG.  8   ). The UDR may store subscription data and policy data for the UDM  827  and the PCF  826 , and/or structured data for exposure and application data (including PFDs for application detection, application request information for multiple UEs  801 ) for the NEF  823 . The Nudr service-based interface may be exhibited by the UDR  221  to allow the UDM  827 , PCF  826 , and NEF  823  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. The UDR may interact with the SMF  824  via an N10 reference point between the UDM  827  and the SMF  824 . UDM  827  may also support SMS management, wherein an SMS-FE implements the similar application logic as discussed previously. Additionally, the UDM  827  may exhibit the Nudm service-based interface. 
     The AF  828  may provide application influence on traffic routing, provide access to the NCE, and interact with the policy framework for policy control. The NCE may be a mechanism that allows the 5GC  820  and AF  828  to provide information to each other via NEF  823 , which may be used for edge computing implementations. In such implementations, the network operator and third party services may be hosted close to the UE  801  access point of attachment to achieve an efficient service delivery through the reduced end-to-end latency and load on the transport network. For edge computing implementations, the 5GC may select a UPF  802  close to the UE  801  and execute traffic steering from the UPF  802  to DN  803  via the N 6  interface. This may be based on the UE subscription data, UE location, and information provided by the AF  828 . In this way, the AF  828  may influence UPF (re)selection and traffic routing. Based on operator deployment, when AF  828  is considered to be a trusted entity, the network operator may permit AF  828  to interact directly with relevant NFs. Additionally, the AF  828  may exhibit an Naf service-based interface. 
     The NSSF  829  may select a set of network slice instances serving the UE  801 . The NSSF  829  may also determine allowed NSSAI and the mapping to the subscribed S-NSSAIs, if needed. The NSSF  829  may also determine the AMF set to be used to serve the UE  801 , or a list of candidate AMF(s)  821  based on a suitable configuration and possibly by querying the NRF  825 . The selection of a set of network slice instances for the UE  801  may be triggered by the AMF  821  with which the UE  801  is registered by interacting with the NSSF  829 , which may lead to a change of AMF  821 . The NSSF  829  may interact with the AMF  821  via an N22 reference point between AMF  821  and NSSF  829 ; and may communicate with another NSSF  829  in a visited network via an N31 reference point (not shown by  FIG.  8   ). Additionally, the NSSF  829  may exhibit an Nnssf service-based interface. 
     As discussed previously, the CN  820  may include an SMSF, which may be responsible for SMS subscription checking and verification, and relaying SM messages to/from the UE  801  to/from other entities, such as an SMS-GMSC/IWMSC/SMS-router. The SMS may also interact with AMF  821  and UDM  827  for a notification procedure that the UE  801  is available for SMS transfer (e.g., set a UE not reachable flag, and notifying UDM  827  when UE  801  is available for SMS). 
     The CN  120  may also include other elements that are not shown by  FIG.  8   , such as a Data Storage system/architecture, a 5G-EIR, a SEPP, and the like. The Data Storage system may include a SDSF, an UDSF, and/or the like. Any NF may store and retrieve unstructured data into/from the UDSF (e.g., UE contexts), via N18 reference point between any NF and the UDSF (not shown by  FIG.  8   ). Individual NFs may share a UDSF for storing their respective unstructured data or individual NFs may each have their own UDSF located at or near the individual NFs. Additionally, the UDSF may exhibit an Nudsf service-based interface (not shown by  FIG.  8   ). The  5 G-EIR may be an NF that checks the status of PEI for determining whether particular equipment/entities are blacklisted from the network; and the SEPP may be a non-transparent proxy that performs topology hiding, message filtering, and policing on inter-PLMN control plane interfaces. 
     Additionally, there may be many more reference points and/or service-based interfaces between the NF services in the NFs; however, these interfaces and reference points have been omitted from  FIG.  8    for clarity. In one example, the CN  820  may include an Nx interface, which is an inter-CN interface between the MME (e.g., MME  721 ) and the AMF  821  in order to enable interworking between CN  820  and CN  720 . Other example interfaces/reference points may include an N5g-EIR service-based interface exhibited by a 5G-EIR, an N27 reference point between the NRF in the visited network and the NRF in the home network; and an N31 reference point between the NSSF in the visited network and the NSSF in the home network. 
       FIG.  9    illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment  900  in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment  900  (or “system  900 ”) may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node such as the RAN nodes  611  and/or AP  606  shown and described previously, application server(s)  630 , and/or any other element/device discussed herein. In other examples, the system  900  could be implemented in or by a UE. 
     The system  900  includes application circuitry  905 , baseband circuitry  910 , one or more radio front end modules (RFEM 5 )  915 , memory circuitry  920 , power management integrated circuitry (PMIC)  925 , power tee circuitry  930 , network controller circuitry  935 , network interface connector  940 , satellite positioning circuitry  945 , and user interface  950 . In some embodiments, the device  900  may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device. For example, said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for CRAN, vBBU, or other like implementations. 
     Application circuitry  905  includes circuitry such as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of low drop-out voltage regulators (LDOs), interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C or universal programmable serial interface module, real time clock (RTC), timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose input/output (I/O or IO), memory card controllers such as Secure Digital (SD) MultiMediaCard (MMC) or similar, Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) interfaces and Joint Test Access Group (JTAG) test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry  905  may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system  900 . In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein. 
     The processor(s) of application circuitry  905  may include, for example, one or more processor cores (CPUs), one or more application processors, one or more graphics processing units (GPUs), one or more reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors, one or more Acorn RISC Machine (ARM) processors, one or more complex instruction set computing (CISC) processors, one or more digital signal processors (DSP), one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry  905  may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to the various embodiments herein. As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry  905  may include one or more may include one or more Apple A-series processors, Intel Pentium®, Core®, or Xeon® processor(s); Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s), Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), or Epyc® processors; ARM-based processor(s) licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd. Such as the ARM Cortex-A family of processors and the ThunderX2® provided by Cavium™, Inc.; a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. Such as MIPS Warrior P-class processors; and/or the like. In some embodiments, the system  900  may not utilize application circuitry  905 , and instead may include a special-purpose processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC or 5GC, for example. 
     In some implementations, the application circuitry  905  may include one or 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. As examples, the programmable processing devices may be one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such implementations, the circuitry of application circuitry  905  may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. Of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  905  may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. In look-up-tables (LUTs) and the like. 
     The baseband circuitry  910  may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry  910  are discussed infra with regard to  FIG.  11   . 
     User interface circuitry  950  may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system  900  or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system  900 . User interfaces may include, but are not limited to, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), one or more indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)), a physical keyboard or keypad, a mouse, a touchpad, a touchscreen, speakers or other audio emitting devices, microphones, a printer, a scanner, a headset, a display screen or display device, etc. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a nonvolatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc. 
     The radio front end modules (RFEM 5 )  915  may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array  1111  of  FIG.  11    infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM  915 , which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave. 
     The memory circuitry  920  may include one or more of volatile memory including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc., and may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. Memory circuitry  920  may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, socketed memory modules and plug-in memory cards. 
     The PMIC  925  may include voltage regulators, surge protectors, power alarm detection circuitry, and one or more backup power sources such as a battery or capacitor. The power alarm detection circuitry may detect one or more of brown out (under-voltage) and surge (over-voltage) conditions. The power tee circuitry  930  may provide for electrical power drawn from a network cable to provide both power supply and data connectivity to the infrastructure equipment  900  using a single cable. 
     The network controller circuitry  935  may provide connectivity to a network using a standard network interface protocol such as Ethernet, Ethernet over GRE Tunnels, Ethernet over Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the infrastructure equipment  900  via network interface connector  940  using a physical connection, which may be electrical (commonly referred to as a “copper interconnect”), optical, or wireless. The network controller circuitry  935  may include one or more dedicated processors and/or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the network controller circuitry  935  may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols. 
     The positioning circuitry  945  includes circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States&#39; Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia&#39;s Global Navigation System (GLONASS), the European Union&#39;s Galileo system, China&#39;s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., Navigation with Indian Constellation (NAVIC), Japan&#39;s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), France&#39;s Doppler Orbitography and Radio-positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry  945  comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry  945  may include a Micro-Technology for Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (Micro-PNT) IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry  945  may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry  910  and/or RFEMs  915  to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry  945  may also provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry  905 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., RAN nodes  611 , etc.), or the like. 
     The components shown by  FIG.  9    may communicate with one another using interface circuitry, which may include any number of bus and/or interconnect (IX) technologies such as industry standard architecture (ISA), extended ISA (EISA), peripheral component interconnect (PCI), peripheral component interconnect extended (PCIx), PCI express (PCIe), or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point to point interfaces, and a power bus, among others. 
       FIG.  10    illustrates an example of a platform  1000  (or “device  1000 ”) in accordance with various embodiments. In embodiments, the computer platform  1000  may be suitable for use as UEs  601 ,  701 ,  801 , application servers  630 , and/or any other element/device discussed herein. The platform  1000  may include any combinations of the components shown in the example. The components of platform  1000  may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs), portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof adapted in the computer platform  1000 , or as components otherwise incorporated within a chassis of a larger system. The block diagram of  FIG.  10    is intended to show a high level view of components of the computer platform  1000 . However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations. 
     Application circuitry  1005  includes circuitry such as, but not limited to one or more processors (or processor cores), cache memory, and one or more of LDOs, interrupt controllers, serial interfaces such as SPI, I 2 C or universal programmable serial interface module, RTC, timer-counters including interval and watchdog timers, general purpose I/O, memory card controllers such as SD MMC or similar, USB interfaces, MIPI interfaces, and JTAG test access ports. The processors (or cores) of the application circuitry  1005  may be coupled with or may include memory/storage elements and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the system  1000 . In some implementations, the memory/storage elements may be on-chip memory circuitry, which may include any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, EPROM, EEPROM, Flash memory, solid-state memory, and/or any other type of memory device technology, such as those discussed herein. 
     The processor(s) of application circuitry  905  may include, for example, one or more processor cores, one or more application processors, one or more GPUs, one or more RISC processors, one or more ARM processors, one or more CISC processors, one or more DSP, one or more FPGAs, one or more PLDs, one or more ASICs, one or more microprocessors or controllers, a multithreaded processor, an ultra-low voltage processor, an embedded processor, some other known processing element, or any suitable combination thereof. In some embodiments, the application circuitry  905  may comprise, or may be, a special-purpose processor/controller to operate according to the various embodiments herein. 
     As examples, the processor(s) of application circuitry  1005  may include an Apple A-series processor. The processors of the application circuitry  1005  may also be one or more of an Intel® Architecture Core™ based processor, such as a Quark™, an Atom™, an i3, an i5, an i7, or an MCU-class processor, or another such processor available from Intel® Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif.; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Ryzen® processor(s) or Accelerated Processing Units (APUs); Snapdragon™ processor(s) from Qualcomm® Technologies, Inc., Texas Instruments, Inc.® Open Multimedia Applications Platform (OMAP)™ processor(s); a MIPS-based design from MIPS Technologies, Inc. such as MIPS Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class processors; an ARM-based design licensed from ARM Holdings, Ltd., such as the ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M family of processors; or the like. In some implementations, the application circuitry  1005  may be a part of a system on a chip (SoC) in which the application circuitry  1005  and other components are formed into a single integrated circuit. 
     Additionally or alternatively, application circuitry  1005  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more a field-programmable devices (FPDs) such as FPGAs and the like; programmable logic devices (PLDs) such as complex PLDs (CPLDs), high-capacity PLDs (HCPLDs), and the like; ASICs such as structured ASICs and the like; programmable SoCs (PSoCs); and the like. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  1005  may comprise logic blocks or logic fabric, and other interconnected resources that may be programmed to perform various functions, such as the procedures, methods, functions, etc. Of the various embodiments discussed herein. In such embodiments, the circuitry of application circuitry  1005  may include memory cells (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, static memory (e.g., static random access memory (SRAM), anti-fuses, etc.)) used to store logic blocks, logic fabric, data, etc. In look-up tables (LUTs) and the like. 
     The baseband circuitry  1010  may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits, a single packaged integrated circuit soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more integrated circuits. The various hardware electronic elements of baseband circuitry  1010  are discussed infra with regard to  FIG.  11   . 
     The RFEMs  1015  may comprise a millimeter wave (mmWave) RFEM and one or more sub-mmWave radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In some implementations, the one or more sub-mmWave RFICs may be physically separated from the mmWave RFEM. The RFICs may include connections to one or more antennas or antenna arrays (see e.g., antenna array  1111  of  FIG.  11    infra), and the RFEM may be connected to multiple antennas. In alternative implementations, both mmWave and sub-mmWave radio functions may be implemented in the same physical RFEM  1015 , which incorporates both mmWave antennas and sub-mmWave. 
     The memory circuitry  1020  may include any number and type of memory devices used to provide for a given amount of system memory. As examples, the memory circuitry  1020  may include one or more of volatile memory including random access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM) and/or synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), and nonvolatile memory (NVM) including high-speed electrically erasable memory (commonly referred to as Flash memory), phase change random access memory (PRAM), magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), etc. The memory circuitry  1020  may be developed in accordance with a Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC) low power double data rate (LPDDR)-based design, such as LPDDR2, LPDDR3, LPDDR4, or the like. Memory circuitry  1020  may be implemented as one or more of solder down packaged integrated circuits, single die package (SDP), dual die package (DDP) or quad die package (Q17P), socketed memory modules, dual inline memory modules (DIMMs) including microDIMMs or MiniDIMMs, and/or soldered onto a motherboard via a ball grid array (BGA). In low power implementations, the memory circuitry  1020  may be on-die memory or registers associated with the application circuitry  1005 . To provide for persistent storage of information such as data, applications, operating systems and so forth, memory circuitry  1020  may include one or more mass storage devices, which may include, inter alia, a solid state disk drive (SSDD), hard disk drive (HDD), a micro HDD, resistance change memories, phase change memories, holographic memories, or chemical memories, among others. For example, the computer platform  1000  may incorporate the three-dimensional (3D) cross-point (XPOINT) memories from Intel® and Micron®. 
     Removable memory circuitry  1023  may include devices, circuitry, enclosures/housings, ports or receptacles, etc. Used to couple portable data storage devices with the platform  1000 . These portable data storage devices may be used for mass storage purposes, and may include, for example, flash memory cards (e.g., Secure Digital (SD) cards, microSD cards, xD picture cards, and the like), and USB flash drives, optical discs, external HDDs, and the like. 
     The platform  1000  may also include interface circuitry (not shown) that is used to connect external devices with the platform  1000 . The external devices connected to the platform  1000  via the interface circuitry include sensor circuitry  1021  and electro-mechanical components (EMCs)  1022 , as well as removable memory devices coupled to removable memory circuitry  1023 . 
     The sensor circuitry  1021  include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information (sensor data) about the detected events to some other a device, module, subsystem, etc. Examples of such sensors include, inter alia, inertia measurement units (IMUs) comprising accelerometers, gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) comprising 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, and/or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (e.g., thermistors); pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (e.g., cameras or lensless apertures); light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors; proximity sensors (e.g., infrared radiation detector and the like), depth sensors, ambient light sensors, ultrasonic transceivers; microphones or other like audio capture devices; etc. 
     EMCs  1022  include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to enable platform  1000  to change its state, position, and/or orientation, or move or control a mechanism or (sub)system. Additionally, EMCs  1022  may be configured to generate and send messages/signaling to other components of the platform  1000  to indicate a current state of the EMCs  1022 . Examples of the EMCs  1022  include one or more power switches, relays including electromechanical relays (EMRs) and/or solid state relays (SSRs), actuators (e.g., valve actuators, etc.), an audible sound generator, a visual warning device, motors (e.g., DC motors, stepper motors, etc.), wheels, thrusters, propellers, claws, clamps, hooks, and/or other like electro-mechanical components. In embodiments, platform  1000  is configured to operate one or more EMCs  1022  based on one or more captured events and/or instructions or control signals received from a service provider and/or various clients. 
     In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform  1000  with positioning circuitry  1045 . The positioning circuitry  1045  includes circuitry to receive and decode signals transmitted/broadcasted by a positioning network of a GNSS. Examples of navigation satellite constellations (or GNSS) include United States&#39; GPS, Russia&#39;s GLONASS, the European Union&#39;s Galileo system, China&#39;s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, a regional navigation system or GNSS augmentation system (e.g., NAVIC), Japan&#39;s QZSS, France&#39;s DORIS, etc.), or the like. The positioning circuitry  1045  comprises various hardware elements (e.g., including hardware devices such as switches, filters, amplifiers, antenna elements, and the like to facilitate OTA communications) to communicate with components of a positioning network, such as navigation satellite constellation nodes. In some embodiments, the positioning circuitry  1045  may include a Micro-PNT IC that uses a master timing clock to perform position tracking/estimation without GNSS assistance. The positioning circuitry  1045  may also be part of, or interact with, the baseband circuitry  910  and/or RFEMs  1015  to communicate with the nodes and components of the positioning network. The positioning circuitry  1045  may also provide position data and/or time data to the application circuitry  1005 , which may use the data to synchronize operations with various infrastructure (e.g., radio base stations), for turn-by-turn navigation applications, or the like 
     In some implementations, the interface circuitry may connect the platform  1000  with Near-Field Communication (NFC) circuitry  1040 . NFC circuitry  1040  is configured to provide contactless, short-range communications based on radio frequency identification (RFID) standards, wherein magnetic field induction is used to enable communication between NFC circuitry  1040  and NFC-enabled devices external to the platform  1000  (e.g., an “NFC touchpoint”). NFC circuitry  1040  comprises an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processor coupled with the NFC controller. The NFC controller may be a chip/IC providing NFC functionalities to the NFC circuitry  1040  by executing NFC controller firmware and an NFC stack. The NFC stack may be executed by the processor to control the NFC controller, and the NFC controller firmware may be executed by the NFC controller to control the antenna element to emit short-range RF signals. The RF signals may power a passive NFC tag (e.g., a microchip embedded in a sticker or wristband) to transmit stored data to the NFC circuitry  1040 , or initiate data transfer between the NFC circuitry  1040  and another active NFC device (e.g., a smartphone or an NFC-enabled POS terminal) that is proximate to the platform  1000 . 
     The driver circuitry  1046  may include software and hardware elements that operate to control particular devices that are embedded in the platform  1000 , attached to the platform  1000 , or otherwise communicatively coupled with the platform  1000 . The driver circuitry  1046  may include individual drivers allowing other components of the platform  1000  to interact with or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present within, or connected to, the platform  1000 . For example, driver circuitry  1046  may include a display driver to control and allow access to a display device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to a touchscreen interface of the platform  1000 , sensor drivers to obtain sensor readings of sensor circuitry  1021  and control and allow access to sensor circuitry  1021 , EMC drivers to obtain actuator positions of the EMCs  1022  and/or control and allow access to the EMCs  1022 , a camera driver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device, audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices. 
     The power management integrated circuitry (PMIC)  1025  (also referred to as “power management circuitry  1025 ”) may manage power provided to various components of the platform  1000 . In particular, with respect to the baseband circuitry  1010 , the PMIC  1025  may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMIC  1025  may often be included when the platform  1000  is capable of being powered by a battery  1030 , for example, when the device is included in a UE  601 ,  701 ,  801 . 
     In some embodiments, the PMIC  1025  may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the platform  1000 . For example, if the platform  1000  is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the platform  1000  may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power. If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the platform  1000  may transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The platform  1000  goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The platform  1000  may not receive data in this state; in order to receive data, it must transition back to RRC_Connected state. An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable. 
     A battery  1030  may power the platform  1000 , although in some examples the platform  1000  may be mounted deployed in a fixed location, and may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery  1030  may be a lithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In some implementations, such as in V2X applications, the battery  1030  may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery. 
     In some implementations, the battery  1030  may be a “smart battery,” which includes or is coupled with a Battery Management System (BMS) or battery monitoring integrated circuitry. The BMS may be included in the platform  1000  to track the state of charge (SoCh) of the battery  1030 . The BMS may be used to monitor other parameters of the battery  1030  to provide failure predictions, such as the state of health (SoH) and the state of function (SoF) of the battery  1030 . The BMS may communicate the information of the battery  1030  to the application circuitry  1005  or other components of the platform  1000 . The BMS may also include an analog-to-digital (ADC) convertor that allows the application circuitry  1005  to directly monitor the voltage of the battery  1030  or the current flow from the battery  1030 . The battery parameters may be used to determine actions that the platform  1000  may perform, such as transmission frequency, network operation, sensing frequency, and the like. 
     A power block, or other power supply coupled to an electrical grid may be coupled with the BMS to charge the battery  1030 . In some examples, the power block XS30 may be replaced with a wireless power receiver to obtain the power wirelessly, for example, through a loop antenna in the computer platform  1000 . In these examples, a wireless battery charging circuit may be included in the BMS. The specific charging circuits chosen may depend on the size of the battery  1030 , and thus, the current required. The charging may be performed using the Airfuel standard promulgated by the Airfuel Alliance, the Qi wireless charging standard promulgated by the Wireless Power Consortium, or the Rezence charging standard promulgated by the Alliance for Wireless Power, among others. 
     User interface circuitry  1050  includes various input/output (I/O) devices present within, or connected to, the platform  1000 , and includes one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the platform  1000  and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the platform  1000 . The user interface circuitry  1050  includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or more physical or virtual buttons (e.g., a reset button), a physical keyboard, keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset, and/or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for showing information or otherwise conveying information, such as sensor readings, actuator position(s), or other like information. Output device circuitry may include any number and/or combinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one or more simple visual outputs/indicators (e.g., binary status indicators (e.g., light emitting diodes (LEDs)) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (e.g., Liquid Chrystal Displays (LCD), LED displays, quantum dot displays, projectors, etc.), with the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation of the platform  1000 . The output device circuitry may also include speakers or other audio emitting devices, printer(s), and/or the like. In some embodiments, the sensor circuitry  1021  may be used as the input device circuitry (e.g., an image capture device, motion capture device, or the like) and one or more EMCs may be used as the output device circuitry (e.g., an actuator to provide haptic feedback or the like). In another example, NFC circuitry comprising an NFC controller coupled with an antenna element and a processing device may be included to read electronic tags and/or connect with another NFC-enabled device. Peripheral component interfaces may include, but are not limited to, a non-volatile memory port, a USB port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, etc. 
     Although not shown, the components of platform  1000  may communicate with one another using a suitable bus or interconnect (IX) technology, which may include any number of technologies, including ISA, EISA, PCI, PCIx, PCIe, a Time-Trigger Protocol (TTP) system, a FlexRay system, or any number of other technologies. The bus/IX may be a proprietary bus/IX, for example, used in a SoC based system. Other bus/IX systems may be included, such as an I2C interface, an SPI interface, point-to-point interfaces, and a power bus, among others. 
       FIG.  11    illustrates example components of baseband circuitry  1110  and radio front end modules (RFEM)  1115  in accordance with various embodiments. The baseband circuitry  1110  corresponds to the baseband circuitry  910  and  1010  of  FIGS.  9  and  10   , respectively. The RFEM  1115  corresponds to the RFEM  915  and  1015  of  FIGS.  9  and  10   , respectively. As shown, the RFEMs  1115  may include Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry  1106 , front-end module (FEM) circuitry  1108 , antenna array  1111  coupled together at least as shown. 
     The baseband circuitry  1110  includes circuitry and/or control logic configured to carry out various radio/network protocol and radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry  1106 . The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry  1110  may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry  1110  may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. The baseband circuitry  1110  is configured to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry  1106  and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  1106 . The baseband circuitry  1110  is configured to interface with application circuitry  905 /XS205 (see  FIGS.  9  and  10   ) for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry  1106 . The baseband circuitry  1110  may handle various radio control functions. 
     The aforementioned circuitry and/or control logic of the baseband circuitry  1110  may include one or more single or multi-core processors. For example, the one or more processors may include a 3G baseband processor  1104 A, a 4G/LTE baseband processor  1104 B, a 5G/NR baseband processor  1104 C, or some other baseband processor(s)  1104 D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., sixth generation (6G), etc.). In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors  1104 A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory  1104 G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU)  1104 E. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors  1104 A-D may be provided as hardware accelerators (e.g., FPGAs, ASICs, etc.) loaded with the appropriate bit streams or logic blocks stored in respective memory cells. In various embodiments, the memory  1104 G may store program code of a real-time OS (RTOS), which when executed by the CPU  1104 E (or other baseband processor), is to cause the CPU  1104 E (or other baseband processor) to manage resources of the baseband circuitry  1110 , schedule tasks, etc. Examples of the RTOS may include Operating System Embedded (OSE)™ provided by Enea®, Nucleus RTOS™ provided by Mentor Graphics®, Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) provided by Mentor Graphics®, ThreadX™ provided by Express Logic®, FreeRTOS, REX OS provided by Qualcomm®, OKL4 provided by Open Kernel (OK) Labs®, or any other suitable RTOS, such as those discussed herein. In addition, the baseband circuitry  1110  includes one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP)  1104 F. The audio DSP(s)  1104 F include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. 
     In some embodiments, each of the processors  1104 A- 1104 E include respective memory interfaces to send/receive data to/from the memory  1104 G. The baseband circuitry  1110  may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry  1110 ; an application circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry  905 /XS205 of  FIGS.  9   -XT); an RF circuitry interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry  1106  of  FIG.  11   ; a wireless hardware connectivity interface to send/receive data to/from one or more wireless hardware elements (e.g., Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth®/Bluetooth® Low Energy components, Wi-Fi® components, and/or the like); and a power management interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMIC  1025 . 
     In alternate embodiments (which may be combined with the above described embodiments), baseband circuitry  1110  comprises one or more digital baseband systems, which are coupled with one another via an interconnect subsystem and to a CPU subsystem, an audio subsystem, and an interface subsystem. The digital baseband subsystems may also be coupled to a digital baseband interface and a mixed-signal baseband subsystem via another interconnect subsystem. Each of the interconnect subsystems may include a bus system, point-to-point connections, network-on-chip (NOC) structures, and/or some other suitable bus or interconnect technology, such as those discussed herein. The audio subsystem may include DSP circuitry, buffer memory, program memory, speech processing accelerator circuitry, data converter circuitry such as analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converter circuitry, analog circuitry including one or more of amplifiers and filters, and/or other like components. In an aspect of the present disclosure, baseband circuitry  1110  may include protocol processing circuitry with one or more instances of control circuitry (not shown) to provide control functions for the digital baseband circuitry and/or radio frequency circuitry (e.g., the radio front end modules  1115 ). 
     Although not shown by  FIG.  11   , in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  1110  includes individual processing device(s) to operate one or more wireless communication protocols (e.g., a “multi-protocol baseband processor” or “protocol processing circuitry”) and individual processing device(s) to implement PHY layer functions. In these embodiments, the PHY layer functions include the aforementioned radio control functions. In these embodiments, the protocol processing circuitry operates or implements various protocol layers/entities of one or more wireless communication protocols. In a first example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate LTE protocol entities and/or 5G/NR protocol entities when the baseband circuitry  1110  and/or RF circuitry  1106  are part of mmWave communication circuitry or some other suitable cellular communication circuitry. In the first example, the protocol processing circuitry would operate MAC, RLC, PDCP, SDAP, RRC, and NAS functions. In a second example, the protocol processing circuitry may operate one or more IEEE-based protocols when the baseband circuitry  1110  and/or RF circuitry  1106  are part of a Wi-Fi communication system. In the second example, the protocol processing circuitry would operate Wi-Fi MAC and logical link control (LLC) functions. The protocol processing circuitry may include one or more memory structures (e.g.,  1104 G) to store program code and data for operating the protocol functions, as well as one or more processing cores to execute the program code and perform various operations using the data. The baseband circuitry  1110  may also support radio communications for more than one wireless protocol. 
     The various hardware elements of the baseband circuitry  1110  discussed herein may be implemented, for example, as a solder-down substrate including one or more integrated circuits (ICs), a single packaged IC soldered to a main circuit board or a multi-chip module containing two or more ICs. In one example, the components of the baseband circuitry  1110  may be suitably combined in a single chip or chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board. In another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry  1110  and RF circuitry  1106  may be implemented together such as, for example, a system on a chip (SoC) or System-in-Package (SiP). In another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry  1110  may be implemented as a separate SoC that is communicatively coupled with and RF circuitry  1106  (or multiple instances of RF circuitry  1106 ). In yet another example, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry  1110  and the application circuitry  905 /XS205 may be implemented together as individual SoCs mounted to a same circuit board (e.g., a “multi-chip package”). 
     In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  1110  may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  1110  may support communication with an E-UTRAN or other WMAN, a WLAN, a WPAN. Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry  1110  is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry. 
     RF circuitry  1106  may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry  1106  may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. To facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry  1106  may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  1108  and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry  1110 . RF circuitry  1106  may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry  1110  and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry  1108  for transmission. 
     In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry  1106  may include mixer circuitry  1106   a , amplifier circuitry  1106   b  and filter circuitry  1106   c . In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  1106  may include filter circuitry  1106   c  and mixer circuitry  1106   a . RF circuitry  1106  may also include synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  1108  based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry  1106   d . The amplifier circuitry  1106   b  may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry  1106   c  may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry  1110  for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. 
     In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry  1108 . The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry  1110  and may be filtered by filter circuitry  1106   c.    
     In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation. 
     In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry  1106  may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry  1110  may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry  1106 . 
     In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. 
     In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. 
     The synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  1106   a  of the RF circuitry  1106  based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer. 
     In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry  1110  or the application circuitry  905 /XS205 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the application circuitry  905 /XS205. 
     Synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  of the RF circuitry  1106  may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle. 
     In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry  1106   d  may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry  1106  may include an IQ/polar converter. 
     FEM circuitry  1108  may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from antenna array  1111 , amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry  1106  for further processing. FEM circuitry  1108  may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry  1106  for transmission by one or more of antenna elements of antenna array  1111 . In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry  1106 , solely in the FEM circuitry  1108 , or in both the RF circuitry  1106  and the FEM circuitry  1108 . 
     In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry  1108  may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry  1108  may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry  1108  may include an LNA to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry  1106 ). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry  1108  may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry  1106 ), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission by one or more antenna elements of the antenna array  1111 . 
     The antenna array  1111  comprises one or more antenna elements, each of which is configured convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. For example, digital baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry  1110  is converted into analog RF signals (e.g., modulated waveform) that will be amplified and transmitted via the antenna elements of the antenna array  1111  including one or more antenna elements (not shown). The antenna elements may be omnidirectional, direction, or a combination thereof. The antenna elements may be formed in a multitude of arranges as are known and/or discussed herein. The antenna array  1111  may comprise microstrip antennas or printed antennas that are fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards. The antenna array  1111  may be formed in as a patch of metal foil (e.g., a patch antenna) in a variety of shapes, and may be coupled with the RF circuitry  1106  and/or FEM circuitry  1108  using metal transmission lines or the like. 
     Processors of the application circuitry  905 /XS205 and processors of the baseband circuitry  1110  may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry  1110 , alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry  905 /XS205 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., TCP and UDP layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a RRC layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a MAC layer, an RLC layer, and a PDCP layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a PHY layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below. 
       FIG.  12    illustrates various protocol functions that may be implemented in a wireless communication device according to various embodiments. In particular,  FIG.  12    includes an arrangement  1200  showing interconnections between various protocol layers/entities. The following description of  FIG.  12    is provided for various protocol layers/entities that operate in conjunction with the 5G/NR system standards and LTE system standards, but some or all of the aspects of  FIG.  12    may be applicable to other wireless communication network systems as well. 
     The protocol layers of arrangement  1200  may include one or more of PHY  1210 , MAC  1220 , RLC  1230 , PDCP  1240 , SDAP  1247 , RRC  1255 , and NAS layer  1257 , in addition to other higher layer functions not illustrated. The protocol layers may include one or more service access points (e.g., items  1259 ,  1256 ,  1250 ,  1249 ,  1245 ,  1235 ,  1225 , and  1215  in  FIG.  12   ) that may provide communication between two or more protocol layers. 
     The PHY  1210  may transmit and receive physical layer signals  1205  that may be received from or transmitted to one or more other communication devices. The physical layer signals  1205  may comprise one or more physical channels, such as those discussed herein. The PHY  1210  may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, such as the RRC  1255 . The PHY  1210  may still further perform error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, and MIMO antenna processing. In embodiments, an instance of PHY  1210  may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of MAC  1220  via one or more PHY-SAP  1215 . According to some embodiments, requests and indications communicated via PHY-SAP  1215  may comprise one or more transport channels. 
     Instance(s) of MAC  1220  may process requests from, and provide indications to, an instance of RLC  1230  via one or more MAC-SAPs  1225 . These requests and indications communicated via the MAC-SAP  1225  may comprise one or more logical channels. The MAC  1220  may perform mapping between the logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC SDUs from one or more logical channels onto TBs to be delivered to PHY  1210  via the transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or more logical channels from TBs delivered from the PHY  1210  via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through HARQ, and logical channel prioritization. 
     Instance(s) of RLC  1230  may process requests from and provide indications to an instance of PDCP  1240  via one or more radio link control service access points (RLC-SAP)  1235 . These requests and indications communicated via RLC-SAP  1235  may comprise one or more RLC channels. The RLC  1230  may operate in a plurality of modes of operation, including: Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC  1230  may execute transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC  1230  may also execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLC re-establishment. 
     Instance(s) of PDCP  1240  may process requests from and provide indications to instance(s) of RRC  1255  and/or instance(s) of SDAP  1247  via one or more packet data convergence protocol service access points (PDCP-SAP)  1245 . These requests and indications communicated via PDCP-SAP  1245  may comprise one or more radio bearers. The PDCP  1240  may execute header compression and decompression of IP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.). 
     Instance(s) of SDAP  1247  may process requests from and provide indications to one or more higher layer protocol entities via one or more SDAP-SAP  1249 . These requests and indications communicated via SDAP-SAP  1249  may comprise one or more QoS flows. The SDAP  1247  may map QoS flows to DRBs, and vice versa, and may also mark QFIs in DL and UL packets. A single SDAP entity  1247  may be configured for an individual PDU session. In the UL direction, the NG-RAN  610  may control the mapping of QoS Flows to DRB(s) in two different ways, reflective mapping or explicit mapping. For reflective mapping, the SDAP  1247  of a UE  601  may monitor the QFIs of the DL packets for each DRB, and may apply the same mapping for packets flowing in the UL direction. For a DRB, the SDAP  1247  of the UE  601  may map the UL packets belonging to the QoS flows(s) corresponding to the QoS flow ID(s) and PDU session observed in the DL packets for that DRB. To enable reflective mapping, the NG-RAN  810  may mark DL packets over the Uu interface with a QoS flow ID. The explicit mapping may involve the RRC  1255  configuring the SDAP  1247  with an explicit QoS flow to DRB mapping rule, which may be stored and followed by the SDAP  1247 . In embodiments, the SDAP  1247  may only be used in NR implementations and may not be used in LTE implementations. 
     The RRC  1255  may configure, via one or more management service access points (M-SAP), aspects of one or more protocol layers, which may include one or more instances of PHY  1210 , MAC  1220 , RLC  1230 , PDCP  1240  and SDAP  1247 . In embodiments, an instance of RRC  1255  may process requests from and provide indications to one or more NAS entities  1257  via one or more RRC-SAPs  1256 . The main services and functions of the RRC  1255  may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in MIBs or SIBs related to the NAS), broadcast of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE  601  and RAN  610  (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, security functions including key management, inter-RAT mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. The MIBs and SIBs may comprise one or more IEs, which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures. 
     The NAS  1257  may form the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE  601  and the AMF  821 . The NAS  1257  may support the mobility of the UEs  601  and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE  601  and a P-GW in LTE systems. 
     According to various embodiments, one or more protocol entities of arrangement  1200  may be implemented in UEs  601 , RAN nodes  611 , AMF  821  in NR implementations or MME  721  in LTE implementations, UPF  802  in NR implementations or S-GW  722  and P-GW  723  in LTE implementations, or the like to be used for control plane or user plane communications protocol stack between the aforementioned devices. In such embodiments, one or more protocol entities that may be implemented in one or more of UE  601 , gNB  611 , AMF  821 , etc. May communicate with a respective peer protocol entity that may be implemented in or on another device using the services of respective lower layer protocol entities to perform such communication. In some embodiments, a gNB-CU of the gNB  611  may host the RRC  1255 , SDAP  1247 , and PDCP  1240  of the gNB that controls the operation of one or more gNB-DUs, and the gNB-DUs of the gNB  611  may each host the RLC  1230 , MAC  1220 , and PHY  1210  of the gNB  611 . 
     In a first example, a control plane protocol stack may comprise, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, NAS  1257 , RRC  1255 , PDCP  1240 , RLC  1230 , MAC  1220 , and PHY  1210 . In this example, upper layers  1260  may be built on top of the NAS  1257 , which includes an IP layer  1261 , an SCTP  1262 , and an application layer signaling protocol (AP)  1263 . 
     In NR implementations, the AP  1263  may be an NG application protocol layer (NGAP or NG-AP)  1263  for the NG interface  613  defined between the NG-RAN node  611  and the AMF  821 , or the AP  1263  may be an Xn application protocol layer (XnAP or Xn-AP)  1263  for the Xn interface  612  that is defined between two or more RAN nodes  611 . 
     The NG-AP  1263  may support the functions of the NG interface  613  and may comprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An NG-AP EP may be a unit of interaction between the NG-RAN node  611  and the AMF  821 . The NG-AP  1263  services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services (e.g., services related to a UE  601 ) and non-UE-associated services (e.g., services related to the whole NG interface instance between the NG-RAN node  611  and AMF  821 ). These services may include functions including, but not limited to: a paging function for the sending of paging requests to NG-RAN nodes  611  involved in a particular paging area; a UE context management function for allowing the AMF  821  to establish, modify, and/or release a UE context in the AMF  821  and the NG-RAN node  611 ; a mobility function for UEs  601  in ECM-CONNECTED mode for intra-system HOs to support mobility within NG-RAN and inter-system HOs to support mobility from/to EPS systems; a NAS Signaling Transport function for transporting or rerouting NAS messages between UE  601  and AMF  821 ; a NAS node selection function for determining an association between the AMF  821  and the UE  601 ; NG interface management function(s) for setting up the NG interface and monitoring for errors over the NG interface; a warning message transmission function for providing means to transfer warning messages via NG interface or cancel ongoing broadcast of warning messages; a Configuration Transfer function for requesting and transferring of RAN configuration information (e.g., SON information, performance measurement (PM) data, etc.) between two RAN nodes  611  via CN  620 ; and/or other like functions. 
     The XnAP  1263  may support the functions of the Xn interface  612  and may comprise XnAP basic mobility procedures and XnAP global procedures. The XnAP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the NG RAN  611  (or E-UTRAN  710 ), such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The XnAP global procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE  601 , such as Xn interface setup and reset procedures, NG-RAN update procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like. 
     In LTE implementations, the AP  1263  may be an S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP)  1263  for the S1 interface  613  defined between an E-UTRAN node  611  and an MME, or the AP  1263  may be an X2 application protocol layer (X2AP or X2-AP)  1263  for the X2 interface  612  that is defined between two or more E-UTRAN nodes  611 . 
     The S1 Application Protocol layer (S1-AP)  1263  may support the functions of the S1 interface, and similar to the NG-AP discussed previously, the S1-AP may comprise S1-AP EPs. An S1-AP EP may be a unit of interaction between the E-UTRAN node  611  and an MME  721  within an LTE CN  620 . The S1-AP  1263  services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services and non UE-associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer. 
     The X2AP  1263  may support the functions of the X2 interface  612  and may comprise X2AP basic mobility procedures and X2AP global procedures. The X2AP basic mobility procedures may comprise procedures used to handle UE mobility within the E-UTRAN  620 , such as handover preparation and cancellation procedures, SN Status Transfer procedures, UE context retrieval and UE context release procedures, RAN paging procedures, dual connectivity related procedures, and the like. The X2AP global procedures may comprise procedures that are not related to a specific UE  601 , such as X2 interface setup and reset procedures, load indication procedures, error indication procedures, cell activation procedures, and the like. 
     The SCTP layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer)  1262  may provide guaranteed delivery of application layer messages (e.g., NGAP or XnAP messages in NR implementations, or S1-AP or X2AP messages in LTE implementations). The SCTP  1262  may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node  611  and the AMF  821 /MME  721  based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP  1261 . The Internet Protocol layer (IP)  1261  may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functionality. In some implementations the IP layer  1261  may use point-to-point transmission to deliver and convey PDUs. In this regard, the RAN node  611  may comprise L2 and L1 layer communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) with the MME/AMF to exchange information. 
     In a second example, a user plane protocol stack may comprise, in order from highest layer to lowest layer, SDAP  1247 , PDCP  1240 , RLC  1230 , MAC  1220 , and PHY  1210 . The user plane protocol stack may be used for communication between the UE  601 , the RAN node  611 , and UPF  802  in NR implementations or an S-GW  722  and P-GW  723  in LTE implementations. In this example, upper layers  1251  may be built on top of the SDAP  1247 , and may include a user datagram protocol (UDP) and IP security layer (UDP/IP)  1252 , a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane layer (GTP-U)  1253 , and a User Plane PDU layer (UP PDU)  1263 . 
     The transport network layer  1254  (also referred to as a “transport layer”) may be built on IP transport, and the GTP-U  1253  may be used on top of the UDP/IP layer  1252  (comprising a UDP layer and IP layer) to carry user plane PDUs (UP-PDUs). The IP layer (also referred to as the “Internet layer”) may be used to perform packet addressing and routing functionality. The IP layer may assign IP addresses to user data packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. 
     The GTP-U  1253  may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. The UDP/IP  1252  may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node  611  and the S-GW  722  may utilize an S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer (e.g., PHY  1210 ), an L2 layer (e.g., MAC  1220 , RLC  1230 , PDCP  1240 , and/or SDAP  1247 ), the UDP/IP layer  1252 , and the GTP-U  1253 . The S-GW  722  and the P-GW  723  may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising an L1 layer, an L2 layer, the UDP/IP layer  1252 , and the GTP-U  1253 . As discussed previously, NAS protocols may support the mobility of the UE  601  and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE  601  and the P-GW  723 . 
     Moreover, although not shown by  FIG.  12   , an application layer may be present above the AP  1263  and/or the transport network layer  1254 . The application layer may be a layer in which a user of the UE  601 , RAN node  611 , or other network element interacts with software applications being executed, for example, by application circuitry  905  or application circuitry  1005 , respectively. The application layer may also provide one or more interfaces for software applications to interact with communications systems of the UE  601  or RAN node  611 , such as the baseband circuitry  1110 . In some implementations the IP layer and/or the application layer may provide the same or similar functionality as layers 5-7, or portions thereof, of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (e.g., OSI Layer 7—the application layer, OSI Layer 6—the presentation layer, and OSI Layer 5—the session layer). 
       FIG.  13    illustrates components of a core network in accordance with various embodiments. The components of the CN  720  may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In embodiments, the components of CN  820  may be implemented in a same or similar manner as discussed herein with regard to the components of CN  720 . In some embodiments, NFV is utilized to virtualize any or all of the above-described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer-readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN  720  may be referred to as a network slice  1301 , and individual logical instantiations of the CN  720  may provide specific network capabilities and network characteristics. A logical instantiation of a portion of the CN  720  may be referred to as a network sub-slice  1302  (e.g., the network sub-slice  1302  is shown to include the P-GW  723  and the PCRF  726 ). 
     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. A network instance may refer to information identifying a domain, which may be used for traffic detection and routing in case of different IP domains or overlapping IP addresses. A network slice instance may refer to a set of network functions (NFs) instances and the resources (e.g., compute, storage, and networking resources) required to deploy the network slice. 
     With respect to 5G systems (see, e.g.,  FIG.  8   ), a network slice always comprises a RAN part and a CN part. The support of network slicing relies on the principle that traffic for different slices is handled by different PDU sessions. The network can realize the different network slices by scheduling and also by providing different L1/L2 configurations. The UE  801  provides assistance information for network slice selection in an appropriate RRC message, if it has been provided by NAS. While the network can support large number of slices, the UE need not support more than 8 slices simultaneously. 
     A network slice may include the CN  820  control plane and user plane NFs, NG-RANs  810  in a serving PLMN, and a N3IWF functions in the serving PLMN. Individual network slices may have different S-NSSAI and/or may have different SSTs. NSSAI includes one or more S-NSSAIs, and each network slice is uniquely identified by an S-NSSAI. Network slices may differ for supported features and network functions optimizations, and/or multiple network slice instances may deliver the same service/features but for different groups of UEs  801  (e.g., enterprise users). For example, individual network slices may deliver different committed service(s) and/or may be dedicated to a particular customer or enterprise. In this example, each network slice may have different S-NSSAIs with the same SST but with different slice differentiators. Additionally, a single UE may be served with one or more network slice instances simultaneously via a 5G AN and associated with eight different S-NSSAIs. Moreover, an AMF  821  instance serving an individual UE  801  may belong to each of the network slice instances serving that UE. 
     Network Slicing in the NG-RAN  810  involves RAN slice awareness. RAN slice awareness includes differentiated handling of traffic for different network slices, which have been pre-configured. Slice awareness in the NG-RAN  810  is introduced at the PDU session level by indicating the S-NSSAI corresponding to a PDU session in all signaling that includes PDU session resource information. How the NG-RAN  810  supports the slice enabling in terms of NG-RAN functions (e.g., the set of network functions that comprise each slice) is implementation dependent. The NG-RAN  810  selects the RAN part of the network slice using assistance information provided by the UE  801  or the 5GC  820 , which unambiguously identifies one or more of the pre-configured network slices in the PLMN. The NG-RAN  810  also supports resource management and policy enforcement between slices as per SLAs. A single NG-RAN node may support multiple slices, and the NG-RAN  810  may also apply an appropriate RRM policy for the SLA in place to each supported slice. The NG-RAN  810  may also support QoS differentiation within a slice. 
     The NG-RAN  810  may also use the UE assistance information for the selection of an AMF  821  during an initial attach, if available. The NG-RAN  810  uses the assistance information for routing the initial NAS to an AMF  821 . If the NG-RAN  810  is unable to select an AMF  821  using the assistance information, or the UE  801  does not provide any such information, the NG-RAN  810  sends the NAS signaling to a default AMF  821 , which may be among a pool of AMFs  821 . For subsequent accesses, the UE  801  provides a temp ID, which is assigned to the UE  801  by the 5GC  820 , to enable the NG-RAN  810  to route the NAS message to the appropriate AMF  821  as long as the temp ID is valid. The NG-RAN  810  is aware of, and can reach, the AMF  821  that is associated with the temp ID. Otherwise, the method for initial attach applies. 
     The NG-RAN  810  supports resource isolation between slices. NG-RAN  810  resource isolation may be achieved by means of RRM policies and protection mechanisms that should avoid that shortage of shared resources if one slice breaks the service level agreement for another slice. In some implementations, it is possible to fully dedicate NG-RAN  810  resources to a certain slice. How NG-RAN  810  supports resource isolation is implementation dependent. 
     Some slices may be available only in part of the network. Awareness in the NG-RAN  810  of the slices supported in the cells of its neighbors may be beneficial for inter-frequency mobility in connected mode. The slice availability may not change within the UE&#39;s registration area. The NG-RAN  810  and the 5GC  820  are responsible to handle a service request for a slice that may or may not be available in a given area. Admission or rejection of access to a slice may depend on factors such as support for the slice, availability of resources, support of the requested service by NG-RAN  810 . 
     The UE  801  may be associated with multiple network slices simultaneously. In case the UE  801  is associated with multiple slices simultaneously, only one signaling connection is maintained, and for intra-frequency cell reselection, the UE  801  tries to camp on the best cell. For inter-frequency cell reselection, dedicated priorities can be used to control the frequency on which the UE  801  camps. The 5GC  820  is to validate that the UE  801  has the rights to access a network slice. Prior to receiving an Initial Context Setup Request message, the NG-RAN  810  may be allowed to apply some provisional/local policies, based on awareness of a particular slice that the UE  801  is requesting to access. During the initial context setup, the NG-RAN  810  is informed of the slice for which resources are being requested. 
     NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more NFs, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions. 
       FIG.  14    is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, of a system  1400  to support NFV. The system  1400  is illustrated as including a VIM  1402 , an NFVI  1404 , an VNFM  1406 , VNFs  1408 , an EM  1410 , an NFVO  1412 , and a NM  1414 . 
     The VIM  1402  manages the resources of the NFVI  1404 . The NFVI  1404  can include physical or virtual resources and applications (including hypervisors) used to execute the system  1400 . The VIM  1402  may manage the life cycle of virtual resources with the NFVI  1404  (e.g., creation, maintenance, and tear down of VMs associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, fault and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems. 
     The VNFM  1406  may manage the VNFs  1408 . The VNFs  1408  may be used to execute EPC components/functions. The VNFM  1406  may manage the life cycle of the VNFs  1408  and track performance, fault and security of the virtual aspects of VNFs  1408 . The EM  1410  may track the performance, fault and security of the functional aspects of VNFs  1408 . The tracking data from the VNFM  1406  and the EM  1410  may comprise, for example, PM data used by the VIM  1402  or the NFVI  1404 . Both the VNFM  1406  and the EM  1410  can scale up/down the quantity of VNFs of the system  1400 . 
     The NFVO  1412  may coordinate, authorize, release and engage resources of the NFVI  1404  in order to provide the requested service (e.g., to execute an EPC function, component, or slice). The NM  1414  may provide a package of end-user functions with the responsibility for the management of a network, which may include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of the VNFs may occur via the EM  1410 ). 
       FIG.  15    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.  15    shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources  1500  including one or more processors (or processor cores)  1510 , one or more memory/storage devices  1520 , and one or more communication resources  1530 , each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus  1540 . For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor  1502  may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources  1500 . 
     The processors  1510  may include, for example, a processor  1512  and a processor  1514 . The processor(s)  1510  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  1520  may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices  1520  may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or nonvolatile 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  1530  may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices  1504  or one or more databases  1506  via a network  1508 . For example, the communication resources  1530  may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via USB), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® (or Bluetooth® Low Energy) components, Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components. 
     Instructions  1550  may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors  1510  to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions  1550  may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors  1510  (e.g., within the processor&#39;s cache memory), the memory/storage devices  1520 , or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions  1550  may be transferred to the hardware resources  1500  from any combination of the peripheral devices  1504  or the databases  1506 . Accordingly, the memory of processors  1510 , the memory/storage devices  1520 , the peripheral devices  1504 , and the databases  1506  are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. 
     It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.