Patent Description:
The use of 3GPP LTE systems (including LTE and LTE-Advanced systems) has increased due to both an increase in the types of devices user equipment (UEs) using network resources as well as the amount of data and bandwidth being used by various applications, such as video streaming, operating on these UEs. With the vast increase in number and diversity of communication devices, the corresponding network environment, including routers, switches, bridges, gateways, firewalls, and load balancers, has become increasingly complicated, especially with the advent of next generation (NG) (or new radio (NR)) systems.

To add further complexity to the variety of services provided by the network devices, many physical implementations of the network devices are propriety and may be unable to incorporate new or adjusted physical components to compensate for different network conditions. This has led to the development of Network Function Virtualization (NFV), which may provide a virtualized environment able to provide any network function or service able to be delivered on general purpose computing systems in a data center as software applications called Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) in conjunction with other network functions (NFs). The use of NFV may provide flexibility in configuring network elements, enabling dynamic network optimization and quicker adaptation of new technologies. As NR systems develop, flexibility in determining performance management of such systems, including the use of analysis of raw NF performance data of a mobile network, together with other management data (e.g., alarm information, configuration data, etc.) is desirable.

<CIT> discloses a method, wherein an authorized consumer requests a network function (NF) measurement job control service producer to create a measurement job to collect performance data of NFs, wherein the request indicates that the performance data needs to be reported by performance data streaming, wherein the NF measurement job control service producer may enable the authorized consumer to create the measurement job to receive the performance data stream.

In the figures, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. The figures illustrate generally, by way of example, but not by way of limitation, various embodiments discussed in the present document.

The following description and the drawings sufficiently illustrate specific embodiments to enable those skilled in the art to practice them. Other embodiments may incorporate structural, logical, electrical, process, and other changes. Portions and features of some embodiments may be included in, or substituted for, those of other embodiments. Embodiments set forth in the claims encompass all available equivalents of those claims.

<FIG> illustrates an architecture of a network in accordance with some aspects. The network 140A includes 3GPP LTE/<NUM> and NG network functions. A network function can be implemented as a discrete network element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance running on dedicated hardware, and/or as a virtualized function instantiated on an appropriate platform, e.g., dedicated hardware or a cloud infrastructure.

The network 140A is shown to include user equipment (UE) <NUM> and UE <NUM>. The UEs <NUM> and <NUM> are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks) but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as portable (laptop) or desktop computers, wireless handsets, drones, or any other computing device including a wired and/or wireless communications interface. The UEs <NUM> and <NUM> can be collectively referred to herein as UE <NUM>, and UE <NUM> can be used to perform one or more of the techniques disclosed herein.

Any of the radio links described herein (e.g., as used in the network 140A or any other illustrated network) may operate according to any exemplary radio communication technology and/or standard. Any spectrum management scheme including, for example, dedicated licensed spectrum, unlicensed spectrum, (licensed) shared spectrum (such as Licensed Shared Access (LSA) in <NUM>-<NUM>, <NUM>-<NUM>, <NUM>-<NUM>, and other frequencies and Spectrum Access System (SAS) in <NUM>-<NUM> and other frequencies). Different Single Carrier or OFDM modes (CP-OFDM, SC-FDMA, SC-OFDM, filter bank-based multicarrier (FBMC), OFDMA, etc.), and in particular 3GPP NR, may be used by allocating the OFDM carrier data bit vectors to the corresponding symbol resources.

In some aspects, any of the UEs <NUM> and <NUM> can comprise an Internet-of-Things (IoT) UE or a Cellular IoT (CIoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. In some aspects, any of the UEs <NUM> and <NUM> can include a narrowband (NB) IoT UE (e.g., such as an enhanced NB-IoT (eNB-IoT) UE and Further Enhanced (FeNB-IoT) UE). An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (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 includes 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. In some aspects, any of the UEs <NUM> and <NUM> can include enhanced MTC (eMTC) UEs or further enhanced MTC (FeMTC) UEs.

The UEs <NUM> and <NUM> may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) <NUM>. The RAN <NUM> may be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN.

The UEs <NUM> and <NUM> utilize connections <NUM> and <NUM>, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections <NUM> and <NUM> are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth-generation (<NUM>) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

In an aspect, the UEs <NUM> and <NUM> may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface <NUM>. The ProSe interface <NUM> may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink (SL) interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH), and a Physical Sidelink Feedback Channel (PSFCH).

The connection <NUM> can comprise a local wireless connection, such as, for example, a connection consistent with any IEEE <NUM> protocol, according to which the AP <NUM> can comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router.

These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), Next Generation NodeBs (gNBs), RAN nodes, and the like, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). In some aspects, the communication nodes <NUM> and <NUM> can be transmission/reception points (TRPs). In instances when the communication nodes <NUM> and <NUM> are NodeBs (e.g., eNBs or gNBs), one or more TRPs can function within the communication cell of the NodeBs.

In some aspects, any of the RAN nodes <NUM> and <NUM> can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN <NUM> 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 an example, any of the nodes <NUM> and/or <NUM> can be a gNB, an eNB, or another type of RAN node.

The RAN <NUM> is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) <NUM> via an S1 interface <NUM>. In aspects, the CN <NUM> may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN (e.g., as illustrated in reference to <FIG>). In this aspect, the S1 interface <NUM> is split into two parts: the S1-U interface <NUM>, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes <NUM> and <NUM> and the serving gateway (S-GW) <NUM>, and the S1-mobility management entity (MME) interface <NUM>, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes <NUM> and <NUM> and MMEs <NUM>.

In this aspect, the CN <NUM> comprises the MMEs <NUM>, the S-GW <NUM>, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) <NUM>, and a home subscriber server (HSS) <NUM>.

Other responsibilities of the S-GW <NUM> may include a lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW <NUM> can also communicate data to other external networks 131A, which can include the Internet, IP multimedia subsystem (IPS) network, and other networks. In this aspect, the P-GW <NUM> is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server <NUM> via an IP interface <NUM>.

Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) <NUM> is the policy and charging control element of the CN <NUM>. In a non-roaming scenario, in some aspects, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with a local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE'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).

In some aspects, the communication network 140A can be an IoT network or a <NUM> network, including <NUM> new radio network using communications in the licensed (5GNR) and the unlicensed (5GNR-U) spectrum. One of the current enablers of IoT is the narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT). Operation in the unlicensed spectrum may include dual connectivity (DC) operation and the standalone LTE system in the unlicensed spectrum, according to which LTE-based technology solely operates in unlicensed spectrum without the use of an "anchor" in the licensed spectrum, called MulteFire. Further enhanced operation of LTE systems in the licensed as well as unlicensed spectrum is expected in future releases and <NUM> systems. Such enhanced operations can include techniques for sidelink resource allocation and UE processing behaviors for NR sidelink V2X communications.

An NG system architecture can include the RAN <NUM> and a <NUM> network core (5GC) <NUM>. The NG-RAN <NUM> can include a plurality of nodes, such as gNBs and NG-eNBs. The core network <NUM> (e.g., a <NUM> core network or 5GC) can include an access and mobility function (AMF) and/or a user plane function (UPF). The AMF and the UPF can be communicatively coupled to the gNBs and the NG-eNBs via NG interfaces. More specifically, in some aspects, the gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be connected to the AMF by NG-C interfaces, and to the UPF by NG-U interfaces. The gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be coupled to each other via Xn interfaces.

In some aspects, the NG system architecture can use reference points between various nodes as provided by 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) <NUM> (e.g., V15. <NUM>, <NUM>-<NUM>). In some aspects, each of the gNBs and the NG-eNBs can be implemented as a base station, a mobile edge server, a small cell, a home eNB, and so forth. In some aspects, a gNB can be a master node (MN) and NG-eNB can be a secondary node (SN) in a <NUM> architecture.

<FIG> illustrates a non-roaming <NUM> system architecture in accordance with some aspects. In particular, <FIG> illustrates a <NUM> system architecture 140B in a reference point representation. More specifically, UE <NUM> can be in communication with RAN <NUM> as well as one or more other 5GC network entities. The <NUM> system architecture 140B includes a plurality of network functions (NFs), such as an AMF <NUM>, session management function (SMF) <NUM>, policy control function (PCF) <NUM>, application function (AF) <NUM>, UPF <NUM>, network slice selection function (NSSF) <NUM>, authentication server function (AUSF) <NUM>, and unified data management (UDM)/home subscriber server (HSS) <NUM>.

The UPF <NUM> can provide a connection to a data network (DN) <NUM>, which can include, for example, operator services, Internet access, or third-party services. The AMF <NUM> can be used to manage access control and mobility and can also include network slice selection functionality. The AMF <NUM> may provide UE-based authentication, authorization, mobility management, etc., and may be independent of the access technologies. The SMF <NUM> can be configured to set up and manage various sessions according to network policy. The SMF <NUM> may thus be responsible for session management and allocation of IP addresses to UEs. The SMF <NUM> may also select and control the UPF <NUM> for data transfer. The SMF <NUM> may be associated with a single session of a UE <NUM> or multiple sessions of the UE <NUM>. This is to say that the UE <NUM> may have multiple <NUM> sessions. Different SMFs may be allocated to each session. The use of different SMFs may permit each session to be individually managed. As a consequence, the functionalities of each session may be independent of each other.

The UPF <NUM> can be deployed in one or more configurations according to the desired service type and may be connected with a data network. The PCF <NUM> can be configured to provide a policy framework using network slicing, mobility management, and roaming (similar to PCRF in a <NUM> communication system). The UDM can be configured to store subscriber profiles and data (similar to an HSS in a <NUM> communication system).

The AF <NUM> may provide information on the packet flow to the PCF <NUM> responsible for policy control to support a desired QoS. The PCF <NUM> may set mobility and session management policies for the UE <NUM>. To this end, the PCF <NUM> may use the packet flow information to determine the appropriate policies for proper operation of the AMF <NUM> and SMF <NUM>. The AUSF <NUM> may store data for UE authentication.

In some aspects, the <NUM> system architecture 140B includes an IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) 168B as well as a plurality of IP multimedia core network subsystem entities, such as call session control functions (CSCFs). More specifically, the IMS 168B includes a CSCF, which can act as a proxy CSCF (P-CSCF) 162BE, a serving CSCF (S-CSCF) 164B, an emergency CSCF (E-CSCF) (not illustrated in <FIG>), or interrogating CSCF (I-CSCF) 166B. The P-CSCF 162B can be configured to be the first contact point for the UE <NUM> within the IM subsystem (IMS) 168B. The S-CSCF 164B can be configured to handle the session states in the network, and the E-CSCF can be configured to handle certain aspects of emergency sessions such as routing an emergency request to the correct emergency center or PSAP. The I-CSCF 166B can be configured to function as the contact point within an operator's network for all IMS connections destined to a subscriber of that network operator, or a roaming subscriber currently located within that network operator's service area. In some aspects, the I-CSCF 166B can be connected to another IP multimedia network 170E, e.g. an IMS operated by a different network operator.

In some aspects, the UDM/HSS <NUM> can be coupled to an application server 160E, which can include a telephony application server (TAS) or another application server (AS). The AS 160B can be coupled to the IMS 168B via the S-CSCF 164B or the I-CSCF 166B.

A reference point representation shows that interaction can exist between corresponding NF services. For example, <FIG> illustrates the following reference points: N1 (between the UE <NUM> and the AMF <NUM>), N2 (between the RAN <NUM> and the AMF <NUM>), N3 (between the RAN <NUM> and the UPF <NUM>), N4 (between the SMF <NUM> and the UPF <NUM>), N5 (between the PCF <NUM> and the AF <NUM>, not shown), N6 (between the UPF <NUM> and the DN <NUM>), N7 (between the SMF <NUM> and the PCF <NUM>, not shown), N8 (between the UDM <NUM> and the AMF <NUM>, not shown), N9 (between two UPFs <NUM>, not shown), N10 (between the UDM <NUM> and the SMF <NUM>, not shown), N11 (between the AMF <NUM> and the SMF <NUM>, not shown), N12 (between the AUSF <NUM> and the AMF <NUM>, not shown), N13 (between the AUSF <NUM> and the UDM <NUM>, not shown), N14 (between two AMFs <NUM>, not shown), N15 (between the PCF <NUM> and the AMF <NUM> in case of a non-roaming scenario, or between the PCF <NUM> and a visited network and AMF <NUM> in case of a roaming scenario, not shown), N16 (between two SMFs, not shown), and N22 (between AMF <NUM> and NSSF <NUM>, not shown). Other reference point representations not shown in FIG. 1E can also be used.

<FIG> illustrates a <NUM> system architecture 140C and a service-based representation. In addition to the network entities illustrated in <FIG>, system architecture 140C can also include a network exposure function (NEF) <NUM> and a network repository function (NRF) <NUM>. In some aspects, <NUM> system architectures can be service-based and interaction between network functions can be represented by corresponding point-to-point reference points Ni or as service-based interfaces.

In some aspects, as illustrated in <FIG>, service-based representations can be used to represent network functions within the control plane that enable other authorized network functions to access their services. In this regard, <NUM> system architecture 140C can include the following service-based interfaces: Namf <NUM> (a service-based interface exhibited by the AMF <NUM>), Nsmf 158I (a service-based interface exhibited by the SMF <NUM>), Nnef 158B (a service-based interface exhibited by the NEF <NUM>), Npcf 158D (a service-based interface exhibited by the PCF <NUM>), a Nudm 158E (a service-based interface exhibited by the UDM <NUM>), Naf 158F (a service-based interface exhibited by the AF <NUM>), Nnrf 158C (a service-based interface exhibited by the NRF <NUM>), Nnssf 158A (a service-based interface exhibited by the NSSF <NUM>), Nausf <NUM> (a service-based interface exhibited by the AUSF <NUM>). Other service-based interfaces (e.g., Nudr, N5g-eir, and Nudsf) not shown in <FIG> can also be used.

NR-V2X architectures may support high-reliability low latency sidelink communications with a variety of traffic patterns, including periodic and aperiodic communications with random packet arrival time and size. Techniques disclosed herein can be used for supporting high reliability in distributed communication systems with dynamic topologies, including sidelink NR V2X communication systems.

<FIG> illustrates a block diagram of a communication device in accordance with some embodiments. The communication device <NUM> may be a UE such as a specialized computer, a personal or laptop computer (PC), a tablet PC, or a smart phone, dedicated network equipment such as an eNB, a server running software to configure the server to operate as a network device, a virtual device, or any machine capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. For example, the communication device <NUM> may be implemented as one or more of the devices shown in <FIG>. Note that communications described herein may be encoded before transmission by the transmitting entity (e.g., UE, gNB) for reception by the receiving entity (e.g., gNB, UE) and decoded after reception by the receiving entity.

Modules and components are tangible entities (e.g., hardware) capable of performing specified operations and may be configured or arranged in a certain manner.

Accordingly, the term "module" (and "component") is understood to encompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physically constructed, specifically configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarily (e.g., transitorily) configured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a specified manner or to perform part or all of any operation described herein.

The communication device <NUM> may include a hardware processor (or equivalently processing circuitry) <NUM> (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a GPU, a hardware processor core, or any combination thereof), a main memory <NUM> and a static memory <NUM>, some or all of which may communicate with each other via an interlink (e.g., bus) <NUM>. The main memory <NUM> may contain any or all of removable storage and non-removable storage, volatile memory or non-volatile memory. The communication device <NUM> may further include a display unit <NUM> such as a video display, an alphanumeric input device <NUM> (e.g., a keyboard), and a user interface (UI) navigation device <NUM> (e.g., a mouse). The communication device <NUM> may additionally include a storage device (e.g., drive unit) <NUM>, a signal generation device <NUM> (e.g., a speaker), a network interface device <NUM>, and one or more sensors, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The communication device <NUM> may further include an output controller, such as a serial (e.g., universal serial bus (USB), parallel, or other wired or wireless (e.g., infrared (IR), near field communication (NFC), etc.) connection to communicate or control one or more peripheral devices (e.g., a printer, card reader, etc.).

The storage device <NUM> may include a non-transitory machine readable medium <NUM> (hereinafter simply referred to as machine readable medium) on which is stored one or more sets of data structures or instructions <NUM> (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the techniques or functions described herein. The instructions <NUM> may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory <NUM>, within static memory <NUM>, and/or within the hardware processor <NUM> during execution thereof by the communication device <NUM>.

The term "machine readable medium" may include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device <NUM> and that cause the communication device <NUM> to perform any one or more of the techniques of the present disclosure, or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structures used by or associated with such instructions. Non-limiting machine readable medium examples may include solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of machine readable media may include: non-volatile memory, such as semiconductor memory devices (e.g., Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM)) and flash memory devices; magnetic disks, such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks; Radio access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks.

The instructions <NUM> may further be transmitted or received over a communications network using a transmission medium <NUM> via the network interface device <NUM> utilizing any one of a number of transfer protocols (e.g., frame relay, internet protocol (IP), transmission control protocol (TCP), user datagram protocol (UDP), hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.). Example communication networks may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a packet data network (e.g., the Internet), mobile telephone networks (e.g., cellular networks), Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, and wireless data networks. Communications over the networks may include one or more different protocols, such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) <NUM> family of standards known as Wi-Fi, IEEE <NUM> family of standards known as WiMax, IEEE <NUM>. <NUM> family of standards, a Long Term Evolution (LTE) family of standards, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) family of standards, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, a next generation (NG)/<NUM>th generation (<NUM>) standards among others. In an example, the network interface device <NUM> may include one or more physical jacks (e.g., Ethernet, coaxial, or phone jacks) or one or more antennas to connect to the transmission medium <NUM>.

Note that the term "circuitry" as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components such as an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) and/or memory (shared, dedicated, or group), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a programmable logic device (PLD), a complex PLD (CPLD), a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD), a structured ASIC, or a programmable SoC), digital signal processors (DSPs), etc., that are configured to provide the described functionality. In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term "circuitry" may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term "processor circuitry" or "processor" as used herein thus refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, and/or transferring digital data. The term "processor circuitry" or "processor" may refer to one or more application processors, one or more baseband processors, a physical central processing unit (CPU), a single- or multi-core processor, and/or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes.

<FIG> illustrates an NFV network management architecture in accordance with some embodiments. As illustrated, the NFV network management architecture <NUM> may include a number of elements (each of which may contain physical and/or virtualized components), including a Network Virtualization Function Infrastructure (NVFI) <NUM>, Network elements (NEs) <NUM>, Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) <NUM>, a Domain Manager (DM) <NUM>, an Element Manager (EM) <NUM>, a Network Manager (NM) <NUM>, and an NFV Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO) <NUM>. The NFV-MANO <NUM>, which may be replaced as indicated herein by multiple NFV-MANO, may comprise a Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) <NUM>, a VNF Manager (VNFM) <NUM>, and a Network Function Virtualization Orchestrator (NFVO) <NUM>. The NM <NUM> may be contained in an Operations Support SystemBusiness Support System (OSS/BSS) <NUM>, with the DM <NUM> and NM <NUM> forming the 3GPP management system <NUM>.

The NFV network management architecture <NUM> may be implemented by, for example, a data center comprising one or more servers in the cloud. The NFV network management architecture <NUM>, in some embodiments, may include one or more physical devices and/or one or more applications hosted on a distributed computing platform, a cloud computing platform, a centralized hardware system, a server, a computing device, and/or an external network-to-network interface device, among others. In some cases, the virtualized resource performance measurement may include, for example, latency, jitter, bandwidth, packet loss, nodal connectivity, compute, network, and/or storage resources, accounting, fault and/or security measurements. In particular, the NEs <NUM> may comprise physical network functions (PNF) including both hardware such as processors, antennas, amplifiers, transmit and receive chains, as well as software. The VNFs <NUM> may be instantiated in one or more servers. Each of the VNFs <NUM>, DM <NUM> and the NEs <NUM> may contain an EM <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>.

The NFV Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO) <NUM> may manage the NFVI <NUM>. The NFV-MANO <NUM> may orchestrate the instantiation of network services, and the allocation of resources used by the VNFs <NUM>. The NFV-MANO <NUM> may, along with the OSSBSS <NUM>, be used by external entities to deliver various NFV business benefits. The OSSBSS <NUM> may include the collection of systems and management applications that a service provider may use to operate their business: management of customers, ordering, products and revenues - for example, payment or account transactions, as well as telecommunications network components and supporting processes including network component configuration, network service provisioning and fault handling. The NFV-MANO <NUM> may create or terminate a VNF <NUM>, increase or decrease the VNF capacity, or update or upgrade software and/or configuration of a VNF. The NFV-MANO <NUM> may include a Virtualized Infrastructure Manager (VIM) <NUM>, a VNF Manager (VNFM) <NUM> and a NFV Orchestrator (NFVO) <NUM>. The NFV-MANO <NUM> may have access to various data repositories including network services, VNFs available, NFV instances and NFVI resources with which to determine resource allocation.

The VIM <NUM> may control and manage the NFVI resources via Nf-Vi reference points within the infrastructure sub-domain. The VIM <NUM> may further collect and forward performance measurements and events to the VNFM <NUM> via Vi-VNFM and to the NFVO <NUM> via Or-Vi reference points. The NFVO <NUM> may be responsible for managing new VNFs and other network services, including lifecycle management of different network services, which may include VNF instances, global resource management, validation and authorization of NFVI resource requests and policy management for various network services. The NFVO <NUM> may coordinate VNFs <NUM> as part of network services that jointly realize a more complex function, including joint instantiation and configuration, configuring required connections between different VNFs <NUM>, and managing dynamic changes of the configuration. The NFVO <NUM> may provide this orchestration through an OS-Ma-NFVO reference point with the NM <NUM>. The VNFM <NUM> may orchestrate NFVI resources via the VIM <NUM> and provide overall coordination and adaptation for configuration and event reporting between the VIM <NUM> and the EMs and NMs. The former may involve discovering available services, managing virtualized resource availability/allocation/release and providing virtualized resource fault/performance management. The latter may involve lifecycle management that may include instantiating a VNF, scaling and updating the VNF instances, and terminating the network service, releasing the NFVI resources for the service to the NFVI resource pool to be used by other services.

The VNFM <NUM> may be responsible for the lifecycle management of the VNFs <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-VNF reference point and may interface to EMs <NUM>, <NUM> through the Ve-VNFM--EM reference point. The VNFM <NUM> may be assigned the management of a single VNF <NUM>, or the management of multiple VNFs <NUM> of the same type or of different types. Thus, although only one VNFM <NUM> is shown in <FIG>, different VNFMs <NUM> may be associated with the different VNFs <NUM> for performance measurement and other responsibilities. The VNFM <NUM> may provide a number of VNF functionalities, including instantiation (and configuration if required by the VNF deployment template), software update/upgrade, modification, scaling out/in and up/down, collection of NFVI performance measurement results and faults/events information and correlation to VNF instance-related events/faults, healing, termination, lifecycle management change notification, integrity management, and event reporting.

The VIM <NUM> may be responsible for controlling and managing the NFVI compute, storage and network resources, usually within one operator's Infrastructure Domain. The VIM <NUM> may be specialized in handling a certain type of NFVI resource (e.g. compute-only, storage-only, networking-only), or may be capable of managing multiple types of NFVI resources. The VIM <NUM> may, among others, orchestrate the allocation/upgrade/release/reclamation of NFVI resources (including the optimization of such resources usage) and manage the association of the virtualized resources to the physical compute, storage, networking resources, and manage repository inventory-related information of NFVI hardware resources (compute, storage, networking) and software resources (e.g. hypervisors), and discovery of the capabilities and features (e.g. related to usage optimization) of such resources.

The NVFI <NUM> may itself contain various virtualized and non-virtualized resources. These may include a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) <NUM> that may provide computational abilities (CPU), one or more memories <NUM> that may provide storage at either block or file-system level and one or more networking elements <NUM> that may include networks, subnets, ports, addresses, links and forwarding rules to ensure intra- and inter-VNF connectivity.

Each VNF <NUM> may provide a network function that is decoupled from infrastructure resources (computational resources, networking resources, memory) used to provide the network function. Although not shown, the VNFs <NUM> can be chained with other VNFs <NUM> and/or other physical network function to realize a network service. The virtualized resources may provide the VNFs <NUM> with desired resources. Resource allocation in the NFVI <NUM> may simultaneously meet numerous requirements and constraints, such as low latency or high bandwidth links to other communication endpoints.

The VNFs <NUM>, like the NEs <NUM> may be managed by one or more EMs <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>. The EM may provide functions for management of virtual or physical network elements, depending on the instantiation. The EM may manage individual network elements and network elements of a sub-network, which may include relations between the network elements. For example, the EM <NUM> of a VNF <NUM> may be responsible for configuration for the network functions provided by a VNF <NUM>, fault management for the network functions provided by the VNF <NUM>, accounting for the usage of VNF functions, and collecting performance measurement results for the functions provided by the VNF <NUM>.

The EMs <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM> (whether in a VNF <NUM> or NE <NUM>) may be managed by the NM <NUM> of the OSS/BSS <NUM> through Itf-N reference points. The NM <NUM> may provide functions with the responsibility for the management of a network, mainly as supported by the EM <NUM> but may also involve direct access to the network elements. The NM <NUM> may connect and disconnect VNF external interfaces to physical network function interfaces at the request of the NFVO <NUM>.

As above, the various components of the system may be connected through different reference points. The references points between the NFV-MANO <NUM> and the functional blocks of the system may include an Os-Ma-NFVO between the NM <NUM> and NFVO <NUM>, a Ve-VNFM-EM between the EM <NUM>, <NUM> and the VNFM <NUM>, a Ve-VNFM-VNF between a VNF <NUM> and the VNFM <NUM>, a Nf-Vi between the NFVI <NUM> and the VIM <NUM>, an Or-VNFM between the NFVO <NUM> and the VNFM <NUM>, an Or-Vi between the NFVO <NUM> and the VIM <NUM>, and a Vi-VNFM between the VIM <NUM> and the VNFM <NUM>. An Or-Vi interface may implement the VNF software image management interface and interfaces for the management of virtualized resources, their catalogue, performance and failure on the Or-Vi reference point. An Or-Vnfm interface may implement a virtualized resource management interface on the Or-Vnfm reference point. A Ve-Vnfm interface may implement a virtualized resource performance/fault management on the Ve-Vnfm reference point.

As above, with the advent of <NUM> networks and disparate devices (such as Machine Type Communication (MTC), enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and Ultra-Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) devices) using these networks, network management and network slicing is evolving towards a service based architecture in which virtualization is used.

Network slicing is a form of virtualization that allows multiple virtual networks to run on top of a common shared physical network infrastructure. Network slicing serves service requirements by providing isolation between network resources, as well as permitting an optimized topology and specific configuration to be developed for each Network Slice Instance (NSI). The different parts of an NSI may be grouped as Network Slice Subnets that allow the lifecycle of a Network Slice Subnet Instance (NSSI) to be managed independently from the lifecycle of an NSI. The NSSIs may be implemented as different core networks, such RAN and 5GC.

Some of the above services have ultra-low latency, high data capacity, and strict reliability requirements, as any faults or performance issues in the networks can cause service failure, which may result in property damage and body injury. Therefore, it may be beneficial to collect real-time performance data that can be used by analytic applications (e.g., network optimization, self-organizing network (SON), etc.) to detect the potential issues in advance, and take appropriate actions to prevent or mitigate issues. Multiple analytic applications are capable of consuming performance data for specific purposes.

As above, the raw performance data of NFs of a mobile network can be analyzed, alone or together with other management data (e.g., alarm information, configuration data, etc.), and formed into one or more management analytical data for NFs, sub-networks, NSSIs or NSIs. The management analytical data can be used to diagnose ongoing issues impacting the performance of the mobile network and predict any potential issues (e.g., potential failure and/or performance degradation). For example, the analysis of NSI/NSSI resource usage can form a management analytical data indicating whether a certain resource is deteriorating. The analysis and correlation of the overall performance data of mobile network may indicate overload situation and potential failure(s).

SON Capacity and Coverage Optimization (CCO) is a typical case that may consume the management analytical data. CCO provides optimal coverage and capacity for the E-UTRAN (see e.g., clause <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM>), which may also be applicable for <NUM> radio networks. The management analytical data related to coverage and capacity help the SON CCO to realize the situation of coverage and capacity or interference, and to trigger corresponding optimization if desired. The PM for <NUM> networks and network slicing includes the management services listed in table <NUM>-<NUM>.

<FIG> shows an example of NF performance measurements generation in accordance with some embodiments. In <FIG>, a service producer <NUM> collects raw performance measurements from one or more NFs 404a, 404b, and generates the performance measurements (or performance indicators) for the one or more NFs 404a, 404b, which are then provided to service consumers. The one or more NFs 404a, 404b may be part of a group of NFs or an NF Set. The performance measurements may be used to generate or derive performance data, which may be referred to as "performance indicators. " The performance indicators may be aggregated over the group of NFs and derived from the performance measurements from the NFs 404a, 404b according to an aggregation method identified in a performance Indicator definition.

Performance Indicators (PIs) are the performance data aggregated over a group of NFs. PIs include, for example, average latency along the NSI. The PIs can be derived from the performance measurements collected at the NFs that belong to the group. The aggregation method is identified in the PI definition. PIs at the NSSI level can be derived from the performance measurements collected at the NFs that belong to the NSSI or to the constituent NSSIs. The PIs at the NSSI level can be made available via the corresponding performance management service for NSSI. The PIs at the NSI level, can be derived from the NSSI level PIs collected at the constituent NSSIs and/or NFs. The NSI level PIs can be made available via the corresponding performance management service for NSI.

<FIG> illustrates a performance data streaming service (PDSS) between a PDSS producer and PDSS consumer in accordance with some embodiments. <FIG> illustrates a holistic sequence for performance data streaming in accordance with some embodiments. Some aspects of PDSS not described herein are provided in 3GPP TS <NUM> and TS <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, the list of stream information (StreamlnfoList parameter) is provided by a PDSS producer <NUM> to a PDSS consumer <NUM> when establishing the streaming connection, as is shown by operation <NUM> (establishStreamingConnection operation). The PDSS producer <NUM> and PDSS consumer <NUM> may be implemented as part of an NF (e.g., gNB), or in a centralized system managing multiple NFs, or an entity outside an NF (e.g., an application).

This operation supports the PDSS producer <NUM> to establish streaming connection with the PDSS consumer (e.g., stream target) <NUM>, as illustrated in <FIG>. In operation <NUM> in <FIG>, the performance data stream units may be reported from the PDSS producer <NUM> to the PDSS consumer <NUM>. One connection supports one or more streams, and the information about the supported streams are sent from the PDSS producer <NUM> to the PDSS consumer <NUM> (stream target) during the connection establishment. If the streaming connection is successfully established, the PDSS producer <NUM> sends Performance Data Stream Units (see table C-<NUM>) to the PDSS consumer <NUM> on this connection according to the information of the supported streams when the performance data is ready for each granularity period.

Table C-<NUM> lists all the Performance Data Stream Unit content items. Table C-<NUM> also provides an explanation of the individual items.

The list of stream information (streamInfoList) is used by the PDSS consumer <NUM> to parse the streamed performance data received from the performance data streaming service producer <NUM>. The establishStreamingConnection operation has two input parameters including producerReference and streamInfoList. The producerReference is a reference of the PDSS producer who requests to establish the streaming connection. The streamInfoList contains the information on the performance data streams including a streamId (a unique identifier (ID) of the stream between the PDSS producer and the stream target); measObjDn (the domain name (DN) of the measured object instance); and measTypes (a list of measurement type whose measurement result values are to be reported by the Performance Data Stream Units via this stream). The measurement result values are reported following the sequence of the measurement types as presented in the 'measTypes' parameter. See e.g., clause <NUM>. <NUM> of 3GPP TS <NUM>.

After the reporting, the streaming connection may be terminated, as shown in operation <NUM>.

The holistic sequence for performance data streaming in <FIG> starts from measurement job creation (operation <NUM>), using a createMeasurementjob request sent from a measurement job control service consumer <NUM> to a measurement job control service producer <NUM>. In response, the measurement job control service producer <NUM> at operation <NUM> communicates with the PDSS producer <NUM> to configure the measurements indicated by the createMeasurementjob request. The PDSS producer <NUM> initiates a handshake with the PDSS consumer <NUM> at operation <NUM>, which responds with a connection established message at operation <NUM>. While the job remains active, the PDSS producer <NUM> sends the performance data in stream units at operation <NUM>, until the PDSS producer <NUM> again initiates another handshake with the PDSS consumer <NUM> at operation <NUM>, at which point the connection between the PDSS producer <NUM> and the PDSS consumer <NUM> is terminated at operation <NUM>.

Thus, the PDSS producer <NUM> establishes a connection to the PDSS consumer <NUM> by exchanging meta-data (PDSS producer <NUM> informs PDSS consumer <NUM> about its own identity and the nature of the data to be reported via streaming) phase and the actual connection (a data pipe for streaming) establishment. The established connection supports stream multiplexing (one connection supports one or more reporting streams simultaneously). Upon successful connection establishment, the PDSS consumer <NUM> is aware of the PDSS producer <NUM> identity, the list of reporting streams and the nature of data being reported on each of the streams.

However, the stream information may be added, updated or deleted, for example, for instance when new measurement jobs (or collections by configuration) are created, when the measurement types to be reported by the stream are changed, or when the measurement job (or collection by configuration) is stopped. Furthermore, the PDSS producer (or another entity actually uses the stream data) may also retrieve the stream information to synchronize the stream information to ensure that the stream information is up-to-date. Therefore, the PDSS producer is able to add, update and delete the stream information to the PDSS consumer.

Operations to get, add, update and delete stream information by the PDSS producer to the PDSS consumer are also disclosed herein. Each operation may include a connectionId input parameter that identifies the streaming connection to which reporting streams are being added/updated/ deleted. Each of the operations may contain other input parameters, output parameters and/or exceptions. The PDSS supports near-real time performance data reporting, which enables data analytics. The embodiments herein improve the performance of PDSS. <FIG> illustrates an example getStreamInfo (or getStream) procedure in accordance with some embodiments. In <FIG>, the PDSS producer <NUM> sends a get Stream Info request to the PDSS stream target (PDSS consumer) <NUM> and receives a response from the stream target <NUM>.

The PDSS producer <NUM> (or another authorized entity) may get the information for one or more streams from the streaming consumer (e.g., stream target) <NUM>. The input and output parameters, as well as exceptions to the request are described in Tables <NUM>. <NUM>, <NUM>. <NUM> and <NUM>. <NUM>, respectively.

<FIG> illustrates an example addStreamInfo (also called addStream) procedure in accordance with some embodiments. In <FIG>, the PDSS producer <NUM> sends an addStreamInfo request to the PDSS stream target (PDSS consumer) <NUM> to add the information for one or more new streams. The PDSS producer <NUM> receives a response from the stream target <NUM>. Various aspects of this procedure are discussed in the following sections. The input and output parameters, as well as exceptions to the request are described in Tables <NUM>. <NUM>, <NUM>. <NUM> and <NUM>. <NUM>, respectively.

<FIG> illustrates an example updateStreamInfo procedure in accordance with some embodiments. As shown in <FIG>, the PDSS producer <NUM> sends a updateStreamInfo request to the PDSS stream target (PDSS consumer) <NUM> to update the information for one or more streams. The PDSS producer <NUM> receives a response from the stream target <NUM>. Various aspects of this procedure are discussed in the following sections. The input and output parameters, as well as exceptions to the request are described in Tables <NUM>. <NUM>, <NUM>. <NUM> and <NUM>. <NUM>, respectively.

<FIG> illustrates an example deleteStreamInfo (or deleteStream) procedure in accordance with some embodiments. As shown in <FIG>, the PDSS producer <NUM> sends a deleteStreamInfo request to the PDSS stream target (PDSS consumer) <NUM> to delete the information for a stream. The PDSS producer <NUM> receives a response from the stream target <NUM>. Various aspects of this procedure are discussed in the following sections. The input and output parameters, as well as exceptions to the request are described in Tables <NUM>. <NUM>, <NUM>. <NUM> and <NUM>. <NUM>, respectively.

The IS operations are mapped to SS equivalents according to table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM>.

The IS operations for operation "getStreamInfo" are mapped to SS equivalents according to table <NUM>. w-<NUM> and table <NUM>.

The IS operations for operation "addStreamInfo" are mapped to SS equivalents according to table <NUM>. x-<NUM> and table <NUM>.

The IS operations for operation "updateStreamInfo" are mapped to SS equivalents according to table <NUM>. y-<NUM> and table <NUM>.

The IS operations for operation "deleteStreamInfo" are mapped to SS equivalents according to table <NUM>. z-<NUM> and table <NUM>.

<FIG> illustrates an overview of resources and applicable HTTP methods in accordance with some embodiments. The resource structure is of the performance data streaming service. Table <NUM>. <NUM>-<NUM> provides an overview of the resources and applicable HTTP methods for a RESTful Application Programming Interface (API).

This resource represents a set of information about the streams.

Resource URI = http://{streamTarget}/PerfDataStreamingMnS/v1530/streamInfoList The resource URI variables a defined in the following table.

This method shall support the URI query parameters specified in the following table.

This method shall support the request data structures, the response data structures and response codes specified in the following table.

This resource represents the information for a stream.

Resource URI = http://{streamTarget}/PerfDataStreamingMnS/v1530/streamInfoList/{streamId}.

The resource URI variables a defined in the following table.

This resource represents a streaming Connection (to be) upgraded to WebSocket protocol.

Resource URI = wss://{streamTarget}/PerfDataStreamingMnS/v1520/streamingConnection.

This method shall support the request data structures, the response data structures and response codes specified in the following tables.

In other embodiments, data other than performance data can be streamed. Such data may include trace data.

In an example of a management services architecture, a NF instantiation service producer may provide a management service to a consumer, by receiving a request from a consumer to instantiate a 3GPP NF; checking whether the VNF package(s) of the VNF(s) realizing the virtualized part of the 3GPP NF have been on-boarded to the NFV MANO system, and on-boarding the VNF package(s) that have not been on-boarded yet; interacting with the NFV MANO system to instantiate the VNF(s) that are realizing the virtualized part of subject 3GPP NF; informing the consumer that the 3GPP NF has been instantiated; and creating the Managed Object Instances (MOIs) for the subject 3GPP NF.

An NF configuration service producer may provide management services to a consumer by receiving a request from a consumer to configure a 3GPP NF instance; configuring the 3GPP NF instance; and informing the consumer that the 3GPP NF instance has been configured. The request from the consumer to configure a 3GPP NF instance may include a request to create the MOI(s) for the 3GPP NF. The request from the consumer to configure the 3GPP NF instance may be a MOI attribute modification request. Configuring the 3GPP NF instance may include interaction with the ETSI NFV MANO system to update the corresponding VNF instance(s) realizing the virtualized part of the 3GPPNF.

A network creation service producer may provide management services to a consumer by receiving a request from a consumer to create a 3GPP network; preparing the NSD(s) for the NS(s) that are to realize the requested 3GPP network, and on-boarding the NSD(s) to ETSI NFV MANO system; on-boarding the VNF package(s) of the constituent VNFs to ETSI NFV MANO system, if the VNF package has not yet been on-boarded; interacting with ETSI NFV MANO system to instantiate the NS(s); consuming a management service to configure the 3GPP NF instance(s) that are constituting the subject 3GPP network; and creating the MOI(s) for the created network. The interaction with the ETSI NFV MANO system to instantiate the NS(s) may include the instantiation of constitute (constituent VNFs). The ETSI NFV MANO system may inform the management service producer about the instantiation of VNFs. The management service producer may create the MOI(s) for the newly instantiated VNFs, and may provide the NF configuration service. Additionally, the management service being consumed to configure the 3GPP NF instance(s) may be the NF configuration service.

The network configuration service producer may provide management services to a consumer, by receiving a request from a consumer to configure a 3GPP network; configuring the 3GPP network; and informing the consumer that the 3GPP network has been configured. The request from the consumer to configure a 3GPP network includes a request to create the MOI(s) for the 3GPP network, and the request from the consumer to configure a 3GPP network is a MOI attribute modification request. Configuring the 3GPP network further may include interaction with the ETSI NFV MANO system to update the corresponding NS instance(s) realizing (fully or partially) the 3GPP network. The interaction with the ETSI NFV MANO system to update the NS(s) may include the instantiation of new VNFs. The ETSI NFV MANO system may inform a management service producer about the instantiation of VNFs. The management service producer may create the MOI(s) for the newly instantiated VNFs, and the management service producer may provide the NF configuration service. In addition, configuring the 3GPP network further includes configuring the 3GPP NFs, and configuring the 3GPP NFs may be via consuming the management service for NF configuration.

A NSSI creation service producer (NSSMF) may create a NSSI for a consumer, by consuming a management service to configure the 3GPP network; and/or consuming a management service to configure the 3GPP NF(s). The management service consumed to configure the 3GPP network may be a network configuration service, and the management service consumed to configure the 3GPP NF(s) may be an NF configuration service.

<NUM> management is based on Service Based Architecture (SBA) where each management function is a producer that produces management services to be consumed by other management functions. A management service offers management capabilities. These management capabilities are accessed by management service consumers via standardized service interface composed of individually specified management service components.

The Network Function Management Function (NFMF) provides NF management services to Network Slice Subnet Management Function (NSSMF); the NSSMF consumes NF management services to provide NSS management services to Network Slice Management Function (NSMF); and the NSMF consumes NSSMF management services to provide NS management services to other management entity.

A management service offers management capabilities. These management capabilities are accessed by management service consumers via standardized service interface composed of individually specified management service components.

A management service may include a management service component type A and management service component type B; a management service component type A, management service component type B, and management service component type C; or any combination of management component types A, B, and/or C. A management service combines elements of management service component type A, B and C. The management service components are combined to allow a management service consumer to interact with a management service producer via a specified service interface.

Management service component type A is a group of management operations and/or notifications agnostic of managed entities. Management service component type B is the management information represented by information model of managed entities. Management service component type B includes the following models: <NUM>) Network resource model for NG-RAN and NR as defined in TS <NUM>. <NUM>) Network resource model for 5GC as defined in TS <NUM>. <NUM>) Network slice information model as defined in TS <NUM>. <NUM>) Network slice subnet information model as defined in TS <NUM>. In embodiments, additional other models belong to type B is to be added later. Management service component type C is performance information of the managed entity and fault information of the managed entity. Management service component type C includes the following information: <NUM>. Alarm information as defined in TS <NUM>. Performance data as defined in TS <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>. In embodiments, management service component type C could be merged with Management service component type B. Mechanisms for collecting Minimization Drive Test (MDT) data may also be included. Additionally, more management information belonging to type C is to be added later.

Management capability exposure governance provides exposure governance on basic elements of management function service-based interface: <NUM>) Management service component type A; <NUM>) Management service component type B; <NUM>) Management service component type C. When there is a Management Service A exposure without exposure governance, Management Service A' Consumer can access all management capability offered by Management Service A' Producer. When Management Service A is exposed with applied exposure governance it becomes Management Service A'. Management Service A' Consumer can access Management Service A' after following steps: Management Service A, exposed by Management Service A' Producer, is consumed by Management Service A' Consumer; Management Service B, exposed by Management Service B Producer, is consumed by Operator who applies exposure governance on exposed Management Service A; Management Service A' Producer produces Management Service A. The Management Service A' Consumer, that consumes Management Service A, the Management Service B and Management Service A' Producer, that produces Management Service B (with management capability exposure governance) and Management Service A, can be represented as one management function entity (e.g., EGMF).

The Management Function (MF) is a management entity whose externally-observable behaviour and interfaces are specified by 3GPP. In the service-based management architecture, MF plays the role of either Management Service producer or Management Service consumer. A Management Service produced by MF may have multiple consumers. The MF may consume multiple Management Services from one or multiple Management Service producers.

Management Functions may interact by consuming Management Services produced by other Management Functions. Figure MS-<NUM> illustrates multiple scenarios, including: MF1 produces Management Service MnS-a; MF2 consumes Management Service MnS-a produced by MF <NUM> and produces Management Services MnS-b and MnS-c; MF3 produces Management Service MnS-c; MF4 consumes Management Service MnS-b produced by the MF2; and MF5 consumes Management Services MnS-c produced by the MF2 and MF3, and in turn produces the same Management Service MnS-c. The behaviour of MF5 may be seen as aggregation of Management Services MnS-c.

Different scenarios include: MF1 produces Management Service MnS-a; MF2 consumes Management Service MnS-a produced by MF1 and produces Management Services MnS-b and MnS-c; MF3 produces Management Service MnS-c; MF4 consumes Management Service MnS-b produced by the MF2; MF5 consumes Management Services MnS-c produced by the MF2 and MF3, and in turn produces the same Management Service MnS-c. The behaviour of MF5 may be seen as aggregation of Management Services MnS-c.

Mobile networks have the capability to support a variety of services, increasing flexibility of the network may cause management challenges. The management system can benefit from management data analytics services to make the mobile network more efficient in responding to various requests. The management data analytics utilize the network management data collected from the network and make the corresponding analytics based on the collected information. For example, the information provided by PM data analytics services can be used to optimize network performance, and the information provided by FM data analytics services can be used to predict and prevent failures of the network. For mobile networks with slicing, a network slice data analytics service can consume performance measurements and fault measurements data for its constituent network slice subnets.

The Management Data Analytics Service (MDAS) can be used for NF(s), NSSI(s), NSI(s) and Subnetwork(s)/network(s). The MDAS comprises an MDAS producer that analyzes management data (e.g., performance measurements, alarm information, and configuration information, etc.) of the NF(s), NSSI(s), NSI(s) and Subnetwork(s)/network(s) and provides management data analytical KPIs. The management services for a mobile network including network slicing may be produced by a set of functional blocks. This annex shows an example of such deployment scenario where functional blocks (such as NSMF, NSSMF, NFMF and CSMF) are producing and consuming various management services.

In this deployment example the NFMF (Network Function Management Function) provides the management services for one or more NF and may consume some management services produced by other functional blocks. The NF provides some management services, for example the NF performance management services, NF configuration management services and NF fault supervision services. NSSMF provides the management services for one or more NSSI and may consume some management services produced by other functional blocks. NSMF provides the management services for one or more NSI and may consume some management services produced by other functional blocks. The MDAF provides the Management Data Analytics Service for one or more NF, NSSI and/or NSI, and may consume some management services produced by other functional blocks, and the CSMF consumes the management service(s) provided by the other functional blocks. This deployment example does not illustrate what management services the CSMF consumes. In this example, one functional block may consume the management service(s) provided by another functional block, depending on the management scope of the functional block(s). The scope may be expressed in the terms of Management Service Components (see e.g., section <NUM> supra).

MDAS can be deployed at different levels, for example, at domain level (e.g., RAN, CN, NSSI) or in a centralized manner (e.g., in a PLMN level). A domain-level MDAS provides domain specific analytics, e.g., resource usage prediction in a CN or failure prediction in a NSSI, etc. A centralized MDAS can provide end-to-end or cross-domain analytics service, e.g., resource usage or failure prediction in an NSI, optimal CN node placement for ensuring lowest latency in the connected RAN, etc. In one example, the Domain MDAF produces domain MDAS. The domain MDAS is consumed by the Centralized MDAF and other authorized MDAS Consumers (for example, infrastructure manager, network manager, slice manager, slice subnet manger, other 3rd party OSS, etc.). The Centralized MDAF produces centralized MDAS, which is consumed by different authorized MDAS Consumers.

Note that the PDSS producers and consumers may communicate with RNIs over an RNI API to obtain contextual information from a corresponding RAN. RNI may be provided to the service consumers via an access node. The RNI API may support both query and subscription (e.g., a pub/sub) based mechanisms that are used over a Representational State Transfer (RESTful) API or over a message broker of a MEC. A MEC App may query information on a message broker via a transport information query procedure, wherein the transport information may be pre-provisioned to the MEC App via a suitable configuration mechanism. The various messages communicated via the RNI API may be in XML, JSON, Protobuf, or some other suitable format.

The RNI may be used by MEC Apps and MEC platform to optimize the existing services and to provide new types of services that are based on up to date information on radio conditions. As an example, a MEC App XP136 may use RNI to optimize current services such as video throughput guidance. In throughput guidance, a radio analytics MEC App XP136 may use MEC services to provide a backend video server with a near real-time indication on the throughput estimated to be available at the radio downlink interface in a next time instant. The throughput guidance radio analytics application computes throughput guidance based on the required radio network information it obtains from a multi-access edge service running on the MEC server. RNI may be also used by the MEC platform to optimize the mobility procedures required to support service continuity, such as when a certain MEC App requests a single piece of information using a simple request-response model (e.g., using RESTful mechanisms) while other MEC Apps subscribe to multiple different notifications regarding information changes (e.g., using a pub/sub mechanism and/or message broker mechanisms).

The location services (LS), when available, may provide authorized MEC Apps with location-related information, and expose such information to the MEC Apps. With location related information, the MEC platform or one or more MEC Apps perform active device location tracking, location-based service recommendations, and/or other like services. The LS supports the location retrieval mechanism, e.g., the location is reported only once for each location information request. The LS supports a location subscribe mechanism, for example, the location is able to be reported multiple times for each location request, periodically or based on specific events, such as location change. The location information may include, inter alia, the location of specific UEs currently served by the radio node(s) associated with the MEC server, information about the location of all UEs currently served by the radio node(s) associated with the MEC server, information about the location of a certain category of UEs currently served by the radio node(s) associated with the MEC server, a list of UEs in a particular location, information about the location of all radio nodes currently associated with the MEC server, and/or the like. The location information may be in the form of a geolocation, a Global Navigation Satellite Service (GNSS) coordinate, a Cell identity (ID), and/or the like. The LS is accessible through the API defined in the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) specification "RESTful Network API for Zonal Presence" OMA-TS-REST-NetAPI-ZonalPresence-V1-<NUM>-<NUM>-C. The Zonal Presence service utilizes the concept of "zone", where a zone lends itself to be used to group all radio nodes that are associated to a MEC host or MEC server, or a subset thereof, according to a desired deployment. In this regard, the OMA Zonal Presence API provides means for MEC Apps to retrieve information about a zone, the access points associated to the zones and the users that are connected to the access points. In addition, the OMA Zonal Presence API, allows authorized application to subscribe to a notification mechanism, reporting about user activities within a zone. In various embodiments, a MEC server may access location information or zonal presence information of individual UEs using the OMA Zonal Presence API to identify the relative location or positions of the UEs.

The bandwidth management services (BWMS) provides for the allocation of bandwidth to certain traffic routed to and from MEC Apps, and specify static/dynamic up/down bandwidth resources, including bandwidth size and bandwidth priority. MEC Apps may use the BWMS to update/receive bandwidth information to/from the MEC platform. In some embodiments, different MEC Apps running in parallel on the same MEC server may be allocated specific static, dynamic up/down bandwidth resources, including bandwidth size and bandwidth priority. The BWMS includes a bandwidth management (BWM) API to allowed registered applications to statically and/or dynamically register for specific bandwidth allocations per session/application. The BWM API includes HTTP protocol bindings for BWM functionality using RESTful services or some other suitable API mechanism.

In some embodiments, an apparatus comprises processing circuitry and memory configured to operate as a performance data streaming service (PDSS) producer for a new radio (NR) network, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to: generate, for transmission to a PDSS consumer, an establish streaming connection request to establish a streaming connection between the PDSS producer and the PDSS consumer, the streaming connection containing one or more streams; after the streaming connection is established, generate, for transmission to the PDSS consumer, a PDSS request to one of: obtain stream information about at least one stream of the streaming connection, add at least one stream to the streaming connection, or delete at least one stream from the streaming connection; and obtain, from the PDSS consumer, a PDSS response in response to the PDSS request.

Although they have been described specific example embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications and changes may be made to these embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a part hereof show, by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. The embodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structural and logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

The subject matter may be referred to herein, individually and/or collectively, by the term "embodiment" merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claim 1:
An apparatus for a new radio, NR, network, the apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry; and memory, the processing circuitry to configure the apparatus to operate as a performance data streaming service, PDSS, producer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>,<NUM>), the processing circuitry configured to:
establish a streaming connection between the PDSS producer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>,<NUM>) and a PDSS consumer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>), the streaming connection containing at least one stream;
after the streaming connection is established, support:
a getStreamInfo operation to get information for one or more streams of the streaming connection from the PDSS consumer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>),
an addStreamInfo operation to add information for one or more streams to the streaming connection to the PDSS consumer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>), or
an updateStreamInfo operation to update information for one or more streams of the streaming connection to the PDSS consumer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>), or
a deleteStreamInfo operation to delete information for one or more streams from the streaming connection to the PDSS consumer (<NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>);
send a getStreamInfo request to support the get Stream Info operation, the get Stream Info request having a list of identifiers for which information for each of one or more streams to be returned; and
receive a getStreamInfo response to the getStreamInfo request, the get Stream Info response indicating a status of failure of the getStreamInfo operation for one or more of the identifiers and an indication that the failure is because the one or more identifiers being unknown.