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. As a result, 3GPP LTE systems continue to develop, with the next generation wireless communication system, <NUM>, to improve access to information and data sharing. <NUM> looks to provide a unified network/system that is able to meet vastly different and sometime conflicting performance dimensions and services driven by disparate services and applications while maintaining compatibility with legacy UEs and applications.

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. To add 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 Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) servers in a data center as software applications called Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). The use of NFV may provide flexibility in configuring network elements, enabling dynamic network optimization and quicker adaptation of new technologies. However, management of VNFs, including activation/deactivation and adjustment or modification, using legacy 3GPP management systems is difficult and may negatively impact legacy systems.

<NPL>; become increasingly complicated. To add 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 Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) servers in a data center as software applications called Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). The use of NFV may provide flexibility in configuring network elements, enabling dynamic network optimization and quicker adaptation of new technologies. However, management of VNFs, including activation/deactivation and adjustment or modification, using legacy 3GPP management systems is difficult and may negatively impact legacy systems.

<NPL>, specifies the requirements applicable to Configuration Management (CM) of virtualized network functions which can be part of EPC or IMS.

<NPL>, specifies the requirements applicable to Lifecycle Management (LCM) of virtualized network functions which can be part of EPC or IMS.

<NPL>, investigates how virtualized networks can be managed. It investigates the relations of management architecture and management functions between virtualized network, non-virtualized networks and mixed networks. Whether the existing management architecture, management function and management models could be maximum reused and enhanced to satisfy the inclusion of the virtualized network management function are also studied.

Advantageous embodiments are subject to the dependent claims.

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.

<FIG> shows an example of a portion of an end-to-end network architecture of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network with various components of the network. At least some of the network devices with which the UEs <NUM> are connected and that provide network functionality, such as the gateways and other servers, may be provided as part of a NFVI rather than using physical hardware components, as described herein. A NFV entity <NUM> may separately control or be in communication with at least some of the physical components. As used herein, an LTE network refers to both LTE and LTE Advanced (LTE-A) networks as well as other versions of LTE networks to be developed. The network <NUM> may comprise a radio access network (RAN) (e.g., as depicted, the E-UTRAN or evolved universal terrestrial radio access network) <NUM> and core network <NUM> (e.g., shown as an evolved packet core (EPC)) coupled together through an S1 interface <NUM>. For convenience and brevity, only a portion of the core network <NUM>, as well as the RAN <NUM>, is shown in the example.

The core network <NUM> may include a mobility management entity (MME) <NUM>, serving gateway (serving GW) <NUM>, and packet data network gateway (PDN GW) <NUM>. The RAN <NUM> may include evolved node Bs (eNBs) <NUM> (which may operate as base stations) for communicating with user equipment (UE) <NUM>. The eNBs <NUM> may include macro eNBs 104a and low power (LP) eNBs 104b. The eNBs <NUM> and UEs <NUM> may employ the techniques as described herein.

The MME <NUM> may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving GPRS Support Nodes (SGSN). The MME <NUM> may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The serving GW <NUM> may terminate the interface toward the RAN <NUM>, and route data packets between the RAN <NUM> and the core network <NUM>. In addition, the serving GW <NUM> may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-eNB handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. The serving GW <NUM> and the MME <NUM> may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes.

The PDN GW <NUM> may terminate a SGi interface toward the packet data network (PDN). The PDN GW <NUM> may route data packets between the EPC <NUM> and the external PDN, and may perform policy enforcement and charging data collection. The PDN GW <NUM> may also provide an anchor point for mobility devices with non-LTE access. The external PDN can be any kind of IP network, as well as an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) domain. The PDN GW <NUM> and the serving GW <NUM> may be implemented in a single physical node or separate physical nodes.

The eNBs <NUM> (macro and micro) may terminate the air interface protocol and may be the first point of contact for a UE <NUM>. An eNB <NUM> may fulfill various logical functions for the RAN <NUM> including, but not limited to, RNC (radio network controller functions) such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. UEs <NUM> may be configured to communicate orthogonal frequency division multiplexed (OFDM) communication signals with an eNB <NUM> over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance with an OFDMA communication technique. The OFDM signals may comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

The S1 interface <NUM> may be the interface that separates the RAN <NUM> and the EPC <NUM>. It may be split into two parts: the S1-U, which may carry traffic data between the eNBs <NUM> and the serving GW <NUM>, and the S1-MME, which may be a signaling interface between the eNBs <NUM> and the MME <NUM>. The X2 interface may be the interface between eNBs <NUM>. The X2 interface may comprise two parts, the X2-C and X2-U. The X2-C may be the control plane interface between the eNBs <NUM>, while the X2-U may be the user plane interface between the eNBs <NUM>.

With cellular networks, LP cells 104b may be typically used to extend coverage to indoor areas where outdoor signals do not reach well, or to add network capacity in areas with dense usage. In particular, it may be desirable to enhance the coverage of a wireless communication system using cells of different sizes, macrocells, microcells, picocells, and femtocells, to boost system performance. The cells of different sizes may operate on the same frequency band, or may operate on different frequency bands with each cell operating in a different frequency band or only cells of different sizes operating on different frequency bands. As used herein, the term LP eNB refers to any suitable relatively LP eNB for implementing a smaller cell (smaller than a macro cell) such as a femtocell, a picocell, or a microcell. Femtocell eNBs may be typically provided by a mobile network operator to its residential or enterprise customers. A femtocell may be typically the size of a residential gateway or smaller and generally connect to a broadband line. The femtocell may connect to the mobile operator's mobile network and provide extra coverage in a range of typically <NUM> to <NUM> meters. Thus, a LP eNB 104b might be a femtocell eNB since it is coupled through the PDN GW <NUM>. Similarly, a picocell may be a wireless communication system typically covering a small area, such as in-building (offices, shopping malls, train stations, etc.), or more recently in-aircraft. A picocell eNB may generally connect through the X2 link to another eNB such as a macro eNB through its base station controller (BSC) functionality. Thus, LP eNB may be implemented with a picocell eNB since it may be coupled to a macro eNB 104a via an X2 interface. Picocell eNBs or other LP eNBs LP eNB 104b may incorporate some or all functionality of a macro eNB LP eNB 104a. In some cases, this may be referred to as an access point base station or enterprise femtocell.

The core network <NUM> may also contain a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) (not shown) and a Home location register (HLR) (not shown). The PCRF may determine policy rules in the network core and accesses subscriber databases and other specialized functions, such as a charging system, in a centralized manner. The PCRF may aggregate information to and from the network, OSSs, and other sources, making policy decisions for each network subscriber active. The HLR is a central database that contains details of each subscriber that is authorized to use the core network <NUM>.

Communication over an LTE network may be split up into <NUM> radio frames, each of which may contain ten <NUM> subframes. Each subframe of the frame, in turn, may contain two slots of <NUM>. Each subframe may be used for uplink (UL) communications from the UE <NUM> to the eNB <NUM> or downlink (DL) communications from the eNB <NUM> to the UE. The eNB <NUM> may allocate a greater number of DL communications than UL communications in a particular frame. The eNB <NUM> may schedule transmissions over a variety of frequency bands. Each slot of the subframe may contain <NUM>-<NUM> OFDM symbols, depending on the system used. Each subframe may contain <NUM> subcarriers. In the <NUM> system, however, the frame size (ms) and number of subframes within a frame may be different from that of a <NUM> or LTE system. The subframe size may also vary in the <NUM> system from frame to frame. The <NUM> system may span <NUM> times the frequency of the LTE/<NUM> system, in which case the frame size of the <NUM> system may be <NUM> times smaller than that of the LTE/<NUM> system.

A downlink resource grid may be used for downlink transmissions from an eNB <NUM> to a UE <NUM>, while an uplink resource grid may be used for uplink transmissions from a UE <NUM> to an eNB <NUM> or from a UE <NUM> to another UE <NUM>. The resource grid may be a time-frequency grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid may be denoted as a resource element (RE). Each column and each row of the resource grid may correspond to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The resource grid may contain resource blocks (RBs) that describe the mapping of physical channels to resource elements and physical RBs (PRBs). A PRB may be the smallest unit of resources that can be allocated to a UE. A RB in some embodiments may be <NUM> wide in frequency and <NUM> slot long in time. In frequency, RBs may be either <NUM> x <NUM> subcarriers or <NUM> x <NUM> subcarriers wide, dependent on the system bandwidth. In Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) systems, both the uplink and downlink frames may be <NUM> and frequency (full-duplex) or time (half-duplex) separated. In TDD systems, the uplink and downlink subframes may be transmitted on the same frequency and are multiplexed in the time domain. The duration of the resource grid <NUM> in the time domain corresponds to one subframe or two resource blocks. Each resource grid may comprise <NUM> (subcarriers) *<NUM> (symbols) =<NUM> resource elements.

TDD systems may include UL, DL and, unlike FDD systems, special subframes due to the time-division aspect of the system when switching between UL and DL subframes. In particular, the special subframe may be preceded by a DL or UL subframe (and succeeded by a subframe of the opposite type) and may include both a UL and DL control region. A guard period may be reserved at the initiation of the special subframe to permit the UE <NUM> to switch between the receiver and transmitter chain.

Each OFDM symbol may contain a cyclic prefix (CP) which may be used to effectively eliminate Inter Symbol Interference (ISI), and a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) period. The duration of the CP may be determined by the highest anticipated degree of delay spread. Although distortion from the preceding OFDM symbol may exist within the CP, with a CP of sufficient duration, preceding OFDM symbols do not enter the FFT period. Once the FFT period signal is received and digitized, the receiver may ignore the signal in the CP.

There may be several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks, including the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). Each downlink subframe may be partitioned into the PDCCH and the PDSCH. The PDCCH may normally occupy the first two symbols of each subframe and carry, among other things, information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, as well as H-ARQ information related to the uplink shared channel. The PDSCH may carry user data and higher layer signaling to a UE and occupy the remainder of the subframe. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to UEs within a cell) may be performed at the eNB based on channel quality information provided from the UEs to the eNB, and then the downlink resource assignment information may be sent to each UE on the PDCCH used for (assigned to) the UE. The PDCCH may contain downlink control information (DCI) in one of a number of formats that indicate to the UE how to find and decode data, transmitted on PDSCH in the same subframe, from the resource grid. The DCI format may provide details such as number of resource blocks, resource allocation type, modulation scheme, transport block, redundancy version, coding rate etc. Each DCI format may have a cyclic redundancy code (CRC) and be scrambled with a Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI) that identifies the target UE for which the PDSCH is intended. Use of the UE-specific RNTI may limit decoding of the DCI format (and hence the corresponding PDSCH) to only the intended UE.

In addition to the PDCCH, an enhanced PDCCH (EPDCCH) may be used by the eNB <NUM> and UE <NUM>. Unlike the PDCCH, the EPDCCH may be disposed in the resource blocks normally allocated for the PDSCH. Different UEs may have different EPDCCH configurations that are configured via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. Each UE <NUM> may be configured with sets of EPDCCHs, and the configuration can also be different between the sets. Each EPDCCH set may have <NUM>, <NUM>, or <NUM> PRB pairs. Resource blocks configured for EPDCCHs in a particular subframe may be used for PDSCH transmission if the resource blocks are not used for the EPDCCH transmissions during the subframe.

In order to enable retransmission of missing or erroneous data, the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) scheme may be used to provide the feedback on success or failure of a decoding attempt to the transmitter after each received data block. When an eNB <NUM> sends data to the UE <NUM> in a PDSCH (or <NUM> PDSCH, referred to as an xPDSCH), the data packets may be sent together with indicators in a PDCCH in the same subframe that inform the UE <NUM> about the scheduling of the PDSCH, including the transmission time and other scheduling information of the transmitted data. For each PDSCH codeword that the UE <NUM> receives, the UE <NUM> may respond with an ACK when the codeword is successfully decoded, or a NACK when the codeword is not successfully decoded. The eNB <NUM> may expect the ACK/NACK feedback after a predetermined number of subframes from the subframe in which the PDSCH data is sent. Upon receiving a NACK from the UE <NUM>, the eNB <NUM> may retransmit the transport block or skip the retransmission if the retransmission number exceeds a maximum value. The ACK/NACK for the corresponding the PDSCH may be transmitted by the UE four subframes after the PDSCH is received from the eNB <NUM>. Depending on the number of codewords present, HARQ-ACK information corresponding to a PDSCH may contain, for example, <NUM> or <NUM> information bits (DCI formats 1a and 1b, respectively). The HARQ-ACK bits may then be processed, as per the PUCCH.

Embodiments described herein may be implemented into a system using any suitably configured hardware and/or software. <FIG> illustrates components of a UE. At least some of the components shown may be used in the UE <NUM> (or eNB <NUM> or NFV entity) shown in <FIG>. The UE <NUM> and other components may be configured to use the synchronization signals as described herein. The UE <NUM> may be one of the UEs <NUM> shown in <FIG> and may be a stationary, non-mobile device or may be a mobile device. The UE <NUM> may include application circuitry <NUM>, baseband circuitry <NUM>, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry <NUM>, front-end module (FEM) circuitry <NUM> and one or more antennas <NUM>, coupled together at least as shown. At least some of the baseband circuitry <NUM>, RF circuitry <NUM>, and FEM circuitry <NUM> may form a transceiver. Other network elements, such as the eNB may contain some or all of the components shown in <FIG>. Other of the network elements, such as the MME, may contain an interface, such as the S <NUM> interface, to communicate with the eNB over a wired connection regarding the UE.

The application or processing circuitry <NUM> may include one or more application processors.

The baseband circuitry <NUM> may include one or more baseband processors and/or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM> and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM>. Baseband processing circuity <NUM> may interface with the application circuitry <NUM> for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry <NUM>. For example the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include a second generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 204a, third generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 204b, fourth generation (<NUM>) baseband processor 204c, and/or other baseband processor(s) 204d for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., fifth generation (<NUM>), <NUM>, etc.). The baseband circuitry <NUM> (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 204a-d) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry <NUM>. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. Modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include FFT, precoding, and/or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. Encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, and/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 <NUM> may include elements of a protocol stack such as, for example, elements of an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) protocol including, for example, physical (PHY), media access control (MAC), radio link control (RLC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), and/or radio resource control (RRC) elements. A central processing unit (CPU) 204e of the baseband circuitry <NUM> may be configured to run elements of the protocol stack for signaling of the PHY, MAC, RLC, PDCP and/or RRC layers. The baseband circuitry may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 204f. The audio DSP(s) 204f may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. Some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry <NUM> and the application circuitry <NUM> may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

The baseband circuitry <NUM> may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example The baseband circuitry <NUM> may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) and/or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). The device can be configured to operate in accordance with communication standards or other protocols or standards, including Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) <NUM> wireless technology (WiMax), IEEE <NUM> wireless technology (WiFi) including IEEE <NUM> ad, which operates in the <NUM> millimeter wave spectrum, various other wireless technologies such as global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), GSM EDGE radio access network (GERAN), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN), or other <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. technologies either already developed or to be developed.

The RF circuitry <NUM> may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM> may include mixer circuitry 206a, amplifier circuitry 206b and filter circuitry 206c. The transmit signal path of the RF circuitry <NUM> may include filter circuitry 206c and mixer circuitry 206a. RF circuitry <NUM> may also include synthesizer circuitry 206d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. The mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry <NUM> based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 206d. The amplifier circuitry 206b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 206c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or bandpass 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 <NUM> for further processing. The output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. Mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

The mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 206d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry <NUM>. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry <NUM> and may be filtered by filter circuitry 206c. The filter circuitry 206c may include a low-pass filter (LPF), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

The mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and/or upconversion respectively. The mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). The mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a may be arranged for direct downconversion and/or direct upconversion, respectively. The mixer circuitry 206a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 206a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation.

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.

The synthesizer circuitry 206d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+<NUM> 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 206d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 206d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 206a of the RF circuitry <NUM> based on a frequency input and a divider control input. The synthesizer circuitry 206d may be a fractional N/N+<NUM> synthesizer.

Frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. A divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor <NUM>.

Synthesizer circuitry 206d of the RF circuitry <NUM> may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. The divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). The DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+<NUM> (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.

Synthesizer circuitry 206d 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. The output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). The RF circuitry <NUM> may include an IQ/polar converter.

The FEM circuitry <NUM> may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation.

The UE <NUM> may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, and/or input/output (I/O) interface as described in more detail below. The UE <NUM> described herein may be part of a portable wireless communication device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop or portable computer with wireless communication capability, a web tablet, a wireless telephone, a smartphone, a wireless headset, a pager, an instant messaging device, a digital camera, an access point, a television, a medical device (e.g., a heart rate monitor, a blood pressure monitor, etc.), or other device that may receive and/or transmit information wirelessly. The UE <NUM> may include one or more user interfaces designed to enable user interaction with the system and/or peripheral component interfaces designed to enable peripheral component interaction with the system. For example, the UE <NUM> may include one or more of a keyboard, a keypad, a touchpad, a display, a sensor, a non-volatile memory port, a universal serial bus (USB) port, an audio jack, a power supply interface, one or more antennas, a graphics processor, an application processor, a speaker, a microphone, and other I/O components. The display may be an LCD or LED screen including a touch screen. The sensor may include a gyro sensor, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, and a positioning unit. The positioning unit may communicate with components of a positioning network, e.g., a global positioning system (GPS) satellite.

The antennas <NUM> may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) embodiments, the antennas <NUM> may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

Although the UE <NUM> is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including digital signal processors (DSPs), and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. The functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein. A computer-readable storage device may include any non-transitory mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). For example, a computer-readable storage device may include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash-memory devices, and other storage devices and media. Some embodiments may include one or more processors and may be configured with instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device.

<FIG> is a block diagram of a communication device. The device may be a UE or eNB or NFV entity, for example, such as the UE <NUM> or eNB <NUM> shown in <FIG> that may be configured to track the UE as described herein. The physical layer circuitry <NUM> may perform various encoding and decoding functions that may include formation of baseband signals for transmission and decoding of received signals. The communication device <NUM> may also include medium access control layer (MAC) circuitry <NUM> for controlling access to the wireless medium. The communication device <NUM> may also include processing circuitry <NUM>, such as one or more single-core or multi-core processors, and memory <NUM> arranged to perform the operations described herein. The physical layer circuitry <NUM>, MAC circuitry <NUM> and processing circuitry <NUM> may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks compatible with one or more radio technologies. The radio control functions may include signal modulation, encoding, decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. For example, similar to the device shown in <FIG>communication may be enabled with one or more of a WMAN, a WLAN, and a WPAN. The communication device <NUM> can be configured to operate in accordance with 3GPP standards or other protocols or standards, including WiMax, WiFi, WiGig, GSM, EDGE, GERAN, UMTS, UTRAN, or other <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. technologies either already developed or to be developed. The communication device <NUM> may include transceiver circuitry <NUM> to enable communication with other external devices wirelessly and interfaces <NUM> to enable wired communication with other external devices. As another example, the transceiver circuitry <NUM> may perform various transmission and reception functions such as conversion of signals between a baseband range and a Radio Frequency (RF) range.

The antennas <NUM> may comprise one or more directional or omnidirectional antennas, including, for example, dipole antennas, monopole antennas, patch antennas, loop antennas, microstrip antennas or other types of antennas suitable for transmission of RF signals. In some MIMO embodiments, the antennas <NUM> may be effectively separated to take advantage of spatial diversity and the different channel characteristics that may result.

Although the communication device <NUM> is illustrated as having several separate functional elements, one or more of the functional elements may be combined and may be implemented by combinations of software-configured elements, such as processing elements including DSPs, and/or other hardware elements. For example, some elements may comprise one or more microprocessors, DSPs, FPGAs, ASICs, RFICs and combinations of various hardware and logic circuitry for performing at least the functions described herein. The functional elements may refer to one or more processes operating on one or more processing elements. Embodiments may be implemented in one or a combination of hardware, firmware and software. Embodiments may also be implemented as instructions stored on a computer-readable storage device, which may be read and executed by at least one processor to perform the operations described herein.

<FIG> illustrates another block diagram of a communication device. Alternatively, the communication device <NUM> may operate as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other communication devices. In a networked deployment, the communication device <NUM> may operate in the capacity of a server communication device, a client communication device, or both in server-client network environments. In an example, the communication device <NUM> may act as a peer communication device in peer-to-peer (P2P) (or other distributed) network environment. The communication device <NUM> may be a UE, eNB, PC, a tablet PC, a STB, a PDA, a mobile telephone, a smart phone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any communication device capable of executing instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that communication device. Further, while only a single communication device is illustrated, the term "communication device" shall also be taken to include any collection of communication devices that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, such as cloud computing, software as a service (SaaS), other computer cluster configurations.

Examples implementations, as described herein, may include, or may operate on, logic or a number of components, modules, or mechanisms. In an example, the software may reside on a communication device readable medium.

Communication device (e.g., computer system) <NUM> may include a hardware processor <NUM> (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (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 communication device <NUM> may further include a display unit <NUM>, 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 <NUM>, such as a global positioning system (GPS) sensor, compass, accelerometer, or other sensor. The communication device <NUM> may include an output controller <NUM>, 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 communication device readable medium <NUM> 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>, or within the hardware processor <NUM> during execution thereof by the communication device <NUM>. In an example, one or any combination of the hardware processor <NUM>, the main memory <NUM>, the static memory <NUM>, or the storage device <NUM> may constitute communication device readable media.

While the communication device readable medium <NUM> is illustrated as a single medium, the term "communication device readable medium" may include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) configured to store the one or more instructions <NUM>.

The term "communication device 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 communication device readable medium examples may include solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media. Specific examples of communication device 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; Random Access Memory (RAM); and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. In some examples, communication device readable media may include non-transitory communication device readable media. In some examples, communication device readable media may include communication device readable media that is not a transitory propagating signal.

The instructions <NUM> may further be transmitted or received over a communications network <NUM> using a transmission medium 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 (e.g., 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, 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 communications network <NUM>. In an example, the network interface device <NUM> may include a plurality of antennas to wirelessly communicate using at least one of single-input multiple-output (SIMO), MIMO, or multiple-input single-output (MISO) techniques. In some examples, the network interface device <NUM> may wirelessly communicate using Multiple User MIMO techniques. The term "transmission medium" shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions for execution by the communication device <NUM>, and includes digital or analog communications signals or other intangible medium to facilitate communication of such software.

The network and components shown in <FIG> may be implemented in hardware or software or a combination thereof. In particular, as discussed above, the network may be wholly or partially implemented using network virtualization. Network virtualization has started to be used in various types of networks, particularly in server deployments and data centers. Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) are software implementations of network functions such as the MME, HLR, SGW, PGW or PCRF. VNFs can be deployed on a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) infrastructure (NFVI), which may include both hardware and software components of the network environment. NFV may thus virtualize separate network node functions into connected blocks that create communication services and exhibit public land mobile network (PLMN)-system behavior. Unlike conventional network hardware layouts in which a server may run a single instance of an operating system on physical hardware resources (e.g., CPU, RAM), the network operator may deploy VNFs on the NFVI to provide enhanced flexibility for network resource utilization, among others. As described in more detail below, actual resources may be dynamically allocated, updated, and deallocated based on the functionality desired. To this end, the hardware may support virtual machines (VMs) having multiple operating systems and individualized amounts and types of virtualized resources.

The NFVI may, as other equipment, have a life cycle that includes creation, modification and deletion. NFV life cycle management may enable operators to instantiate or terminate VNFs on the fly according to demand. This may accordingly provide a great deal of flexibility in modification of the network to scale network capacity. In legacy 3GPP systems, an Integration Reference Point (IRP) may be used as a standard for an Operations Support Systems (OSS) client (referred to as an IRP Manager) to refer and access IRP Agents in various instantiations, such as an Element Manager (EM) or Network Manager (NM). The IRP Manager may manage the networks via Configuration Management (CM) functions - Create, Delete, and Modify operations. The CM functions may enable the IRP Manager to create, delete, or modify an Information Object Class (IOC) representing various behaviors or functions of the network elements. However, there is no native command in the IRP to enable the NM to instantiate or terminate a VNF. Instead, legacy create, delete or modify functions may be used to respectively instantiate, terminate or update the VNF in order to support VNF lifecycle management functions. The legacy Network Resource Model (NRM) already defined in the 3GPP standard may be reused to minimize the impact to legacy systems, and may also be used in the NFV work item.

<FIG> illustrates a NFV network management architecture. The 3GPP NFV network management architecture <NUM> shown in <FIG> illustrates an exemplary manner in which NVF life cycle management can be supported by the 3GPP management system. 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 a NFV Management and Orchestration (NFV-MANO) <NUM>, The NFV-MANO <NUM> 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 System/Business 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 500may 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. The elements of the NFV network management architecture <NUM> may thus be contained in one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> or other devices. 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 OSS/BSS <NUM>, be used by external entities to deliver various NFV business benefits. The OSS/BSS <NUM> may include the collection of systems and management applications that a service provider (such as a telephone operator or telecommunications company) 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> maybe 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.

<FIG> illustrates a flow diagram of a Managed Object Instance (MOI) creation triggered by a VNF instantiation request from a network manager (NM) in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The operations shown in <FIG> may be performed by the various elements shown in <FIG>. The operations generally illustrate the manner in which the NM <NUM> may instantiate a VNF by requesting the EM <NUM> to create one or more MOIs for the VNF instance.

At operation <NUM>, the NM <NUM> may determine that creation of a new VNF is desired. The VNF to be created may be a MME, HLR, SGW, PGW, or PCRF, for example. The NM <NUM> may transmit a request to the EM <NUM> (of the DM) via an Itf-N reference point to create one or more MOIs to instantiate a new VNF. The request may contain a new attribute that indicates the type of the instantiation to be created.

The EM <NUM>, having received the request, may determine the creation type, e.g. whether the MOI creation request is for a PNF or a VNF. After determining that the request is for a VNF, the EM <NUM> may then determine whether or not the VNF already exists. If the VNF for which the MOI is to be created already exists, the operations proceed to step <NUM> to create the MOI for the VNF. If the EM <NUM> determines that a new VNF is to be created, the operations proceed to operation <NUM>. If, on the other hand, the EM <NUM> determines that the request is to create an MOI for a PNF, the operations proceed to operation <NUM>, skipping operations <NUM>-<NUM>. At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> sends, via a Ve-VNFM-EM reference point, a request to VNFM <NUM> to instantiate the VNF.

At operation <NUM>, the NFV-MANO may create and start the VM(s) and allocate networking resources for the VNF instance. Specifically, having received the request at operation <NUM>, the VNFM <NUM> may work with NFVO <NUM> and VIM <NUM> to generate/allocate the VNF instance resources, communicating via the Or-Vnfm and Vi-Vnfm and Or-Vi reference points.

Once the VNF instance has been processed, the method continues to operation <NUM>. At operation <NUM>, the VNFM <NUM> sends an acknowledgement to the EM <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-EM reference point. The acknowledgement include attributes such as VNF instance ID vnfInstanceId, which indicates the VNF has been successfully instantiated, along with the identification of the VNF.

The EM <NUM> may subsequently create one or more MOIs to represent the VNF instance. The MOI creation may be in response to the acknowledgment at operation <NUM> or in response to a determination that the MOI creation request at operation <NUM> is for a PNF, or an existing VNF. For example, in response to the acknowledgment of the MOI creation for an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may create an IOC for the MME VNF. In this specific embodiment, the EM <NUM> may create an <<IOC>> MMEFunction, and other relevant IOC, and add the attribute vnfInstanceId to the <<IOC>> MMEFunction. As above, more than one MOI may be created by the EM <NUM> in response to a single request.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> sends a notification of MOI creation to the NM <NUM>. The MOI creation may be for one or more MOIs and may be for a VNF, as indicated, or for a PNF. The EM <NUM> sends the notification to the NM <NUM> over the Itf-N reference point used to transmit the initial request.

At operation <NUM>, the NM <NUM> may send a request to configure application specific parameters for the VNF and MOI. The request to configure the application specific parameters may be sent from the NM <NUM> to the EM <NUM> over the Itf-N reference point.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> configures the application specific parameters in response to receiving the request. Continuing the above embodiment, if the VNF is an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may add the MME VNF to the MME pool through undertaking a variety of actions. These actions may include inserting the Distinguished Name (DN) of the MMEFunction into the attribute mMEPoolMemberList of <<IOC>> MMEPool and inserting the DN of the MMEPool into the attribute mMEPool of <<IOC>> MMEFunction.

After configuring the VNF at operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a notification at operation <NUM> to the NM <NUM> using the Itf-N reference point. This notification may indicate to the NM <NUM> of the application specific parameters change. The notification may in some embodiments specify the change in addition to merely identifying that the change has occurred.

<FIG> illustrates a flow diagram of MOI creation triggered by a VNF instantiation request from an element manager (EM) in accordance with another embodiment of the invention. The operations shown in <FIG> may be performed by the various elements shown in <FIG>. The operations generally differ from those of <FIG> in that the EM <NUM> rather than the NM <NUM> may instantiate a VNF.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may determine a VNF is to be created. The EM <NUM> send a requests to the NFV-MANO to instantiate the VNF. As shown, the EM <NUM> sends the request to the VNFM <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-EM reference point.

Once the VNF instance has been instantiated by the NFV-MANO, the method continues to operation <NUM>. At operation <NUM>, the VNFM <NUM> sends an acknowledgement to the EM <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-EM reference point. The acknowledgement indicates successful instantiation and may include attributes such as VNF instance ID vnfInstanceId, which provides the identification of the VNF.

The EM <NUM> subsequently creates one or more MOIs to represent the VNF instance. The MOI creation may be in response to the acknowledgment at operation <NUM>. For example, in response to the acknowledgment of the MOI creation for an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may create an IOC for the MME VNF. In this specific embodiment, the EM <NUM> may create an <<IOC>> MMEFunction, and other relevant IOC, and add the attribute vnfInstanceId to the <<IOC>> MMEFunction. As above, more than one MOI may be created by the EM <NUM> in response to a single request.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> sends a notification of MOI creation to the NM <NUM>. The MOI creation may be for one or more MOIs. The EM <NUM> sends the notification to the NM <NUM> over the Itf-N reference point used to transmit the initial request.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> configures the application specific parameters in response to receiving the request. The configuration may occur without the NM <NUM> sending a request to configure the application specific parameters. Continuing the above embodiment, if the VNF is an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may add the MME VNF to the MME pool through undertaking a variety of actions. These actions may include inserting the DN of the MMEFunction into the attribute mMEPoolMemberList of <<IOC>> MMEPool and inserting the DN of the MMEPool into the attribute mMEPool of <<IOC>> MMEFunction.

After configuring the VNF at operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a notification at operation <NUM> to the NM <NUM> using the Itf-N reference point. This notification may indicate to the NM <NUM> of the application specific parameters change as well as specifying the change as above.

<FIG> illustrates a flow diagram of a VNF termination triggered by a MOI deletion request from an NM. The operations shown in <FIG> may be performed by the various elements shown in <FIG>. The operations generally describe a process in which the NM <NUM> terminates a VNF by requesting the EM <NUM> to delete one or more MOIs for the VNF instance.

At operation <NUM>, the NM <NUM> may determine that deletion of an existing VNF is desired. The VNF to be deleted may be a MME, HLR, SGW, PGW, or PCRF, for example. The NM <NUM> may transmit a request to the EM <NUM> (of the DM) via an Itf-N reference point to delete one or more MOIs in an attempt to terminate the VNF instance represented by the MOI. The request may contain a new attribute that indicates the type of the instantiation to be deleted.

The EM <NUM>, having received the request from the NM <NUM>, may determine the VNF from the MOIs identifiers provided in the request. After determining the VNF, the EM <NUM> may at operation <NUM> initiate decommissioning of the services provided by the VNF instance <NUM> where the MOI(s) are to be deleted. For example, if the VNF instance <NUM> is an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may offload the UEs being served by the VNF instance <NUM> to neighbouring MMEs in the MME pool.

After the VNF instance <NUM> has been decommissioned at operation <NUM>, the information of the decommissioning is propagated to other components in the network. Specifically, at operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may configure the application specific parameters. For example, if the VNF instance <NUM> is an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may remove the MME VNF from the MME pool through deletion of the DN of the MMEFunction from the attribute mMEPoolMemberList of <<IOC>> MMEPool and deletion of the DN of the MMEPool from the attribute mMEPool of <<IOC>> MMEFunction.

After termination of the VNF instance <NUM> at operation <NUM> and reconfiguration of the parameters at operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a notification at operation <NUM> to the NM <NUM> using the Itf-N reference point. This notification may indicate to the NM <NUM> of the application specific parameters change and may specify the change.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a request to the NFV-MANO to terminate the VNF instance <NUM>. As shown, the EM <NUM> may send the request to the VNFM <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-EM reference point. The request may include the VNF instance ID attribute vnfInstanceId, to VNFM to terminate the VNF instance.

At operation <NUM>, in response to receiving the termination request from the EM <NUM>, the NFV-MANO may terminate the VM and release the virtualized resources for the VNF instance <NUM>. Specifically, having received the request at operation <NUM>, the VNFM <NUM> may work with NFVO <NUM> and VIM <NUM> to terminate/release the VNF instance resources, communicating via the Or-Vnfm and Vi-Vnfm and Or-Vi reference points.

Once the VNF instance has been terminated and the resources released by the NFV-MANO, at operation <NUM>, the VNFM <NUM> may send a notification to the EM <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-EM reference point. The notification may indicate successful termination of the VNF instance <NUM> and may include attributes such as VNF instance ID vnfInstanceId, which provides the identification of the VNF instance <NUM>.

Upon receiving the notification of termination of the VNF instance <NUM> from the VNFM <NUM> at operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may subsequently delete one or more MOIs that represent the VNF instance <NUM> at operation <NUM>. For example, in response to the acknowledgment of the deletion for the MME VNF by the VNFM <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may delete the IOC for the MME VNF including deletion of the <<IOC>> MMEFunction and vnfInstanceId from the <<IOC>> MMEFunction. Note that as above, more than one MOI may be deleted by the EM <NUM> at the same time.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a notification of MOI deletion to the NM <NUM>. The MOI deletion may be for one or more MOIs forming the VNF instance <NUM>. The EM <NUM> may send the notification to the NM <NUM> over the Itf-N reference point.

<FIG> illustrates a flow diagram of a MOI deletion triggered by VNF termination from an EM. The operations shown in <FIG> may be performed by the various elements shown in <FIG>. The operations generally differ from those of <FIG> in that the EM <NUM> rather than the NM <NUM> initiates deletion of the VNF instance <NUM>.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may initiate decommissioning of the services provided by the VNF instance <NUM> where the MOI(s) are to be terminated. For example, if the VNF instance <NUM> is an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may offload the UEs being served by the VNF instance <NUM> to neighbouring MMEs in the MME pool.

At operation <NUM>, after decommissioning of the services provided by the VNF instance <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may configure the application specific parameters. For example, if the VNF instance <NUM> is an MME VNF, the EM <NUM> may remove the MME VNF from the MME pool through deletion of the DN of the MMEFunction from the attribute mMEPoolMemberList of <<IOC>> MMEPool and deletion of the DN of the MMEPool from the attribute mMEPool of <<IOC>> MMEFunction.

At operation <NUM>, after configuration of the parameters at operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a notification to the NM <NUM> using the Itf-N reference point. This notification may indicate to the NM <NUM> of the application specific parameters change and may specify the change.

Once the VNF instance has been terminated and the resources released by the NFV-MANO, at operation <NUM> the VNFM <NUM> may send a notification to the EM <NUM> via the Ve-VNFM-EM reference point. The notification may indicate successful termination of the VNF instance <NUM> and may include attributes such as VNF instance ID vnfInstanceId, which provides the identification of the VNF instance <NUM>.

Upon receiving the notification of termination of the VNF instance <NUM> from the VNFM <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may subsequently delete one or more MOIs that represent the VNF instance <NUM> at operation <NUM>. For example, in response to the acknowledgment of the deletion for the MME VNF by the VNFM <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may delete the IOC for the MME VNF including deletion of the <<IOC>> MMEFunction and vnfInstanceId from the <<IOC>> MMEFunction. Note that as above, more than one MOI may be deleted by the EM <NUM> at the same time.

At operation <NUM>, the EM <NUM> may send a notification of MOI deletion to the NM <NUM>. The MOI deletion may be for one or more MOIs forming the VNF instantiation <NUM>. The EM <NUM> may send the notification to the NM <NUM> over the Itf-N reference point.

Although embodiments showing creation and implementation examples showing deletion are described with reference to <FIG>, as indicated above, other processes other than creation and deletion may be implemented. For example, one or more of the MOIs of a VNF instantiation may be updated or otherwise changed using a similar method as those above. The updating may be initiated by the EM or by the NM in different embodiments. The requests and notifications may be similar to those described above, using 3GPP CM functions, with the ID of the VNF instance and additional attribute field identifying the type of instantiation (VNF or PNF).

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. The embodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the teachings disclosed herein. This Detailed Description, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the invention is defined only by the appended claims.

Claim 1:
An apparatus comprising:
processing circuitry (<NUM>); and
memory (<NUM>),
the processing circuitry configured to operate as an element manager, EM (<NUM>), that provides end-user functions for management of a network element, NE (<NUM>), wherein a Ve-Vnfm-em reference point is between the EM (<NUM>) and a Virtual Network Function Manager, VNFM (<NUM>), and an Itf-N interface between the EM (<NUM>) and a Network Manager, NM (<NUM>),
wherein the processing circuitry operating as the EM (<NUM>) is arranged to:
receive from the VNFM (<NUM>) through the Ve-Vnfm-em reference point a lifecycle management change notification indicating that a virtual network function, VNF (<NUM>), has been instantiated as part of lifecycle management of the VNF (<NUM>);
characterized in that the processing circuitry operating as the EM (<NUM>) is further arranged to:
create a managed object instance, MOI, after reception of the lifecycle management change notification;
transmit, through the Itf-N interface, a notification to the NM (<NUM>) of creation of the MOI; and
configure attributes of the MOI after notification to the NM (<NUM>) of the creation of the MOI.