Patent Description:
Some UEs may operate in accordance with specifications that limit the bandwidth of uplink (UL) and/or downlink (DL) communications with the network. For example, some 3GPP specifications limit the transmit power of a UE to minimize human exposure to electromagnetic radiation, in accordance with regulations imposed by the country where the UE is deployed. These power limitations may provide an upper bound on the UL and/or DL bandwidth attainable by the UE. When one or more further UEs having respective network connections are available for use, it may be beneficial to aggregate the capabilities of the UEs. <CIT> discloses relay-based UE cooperation by a group of UEs and a configuration including an adaption protocol for processing UC bearer traffic. An internet article by <NPL>" cited under the reference XP93020310A discusses the SDAP layer and QFI information. The publication titled "Packet Duplication in Dual Connectivity Enabled <NUM> Wireless Networks: Overview and challenges" cited under the reference XP11759192A discloses a split bearer configuration in which traffic is routed via one bearer of the split when volume is below a threshold.

A selection of optional features is set out in the dependent claims.

The exemplary embodiments may be further understood with reference to the following description and the related appended drawings, wherein like elements are provided with the same reference numerals. The exemplary embodiments relate to operations for aggregating the transmit and/or receive capabilities of two or more UEs for data exchanges with a network. The exemplary embodiments are described with respect to a primary UE having a device-to-device (D2D) communication link to a secondary UE, and both the primary and secondary UEs having a radio link with a network. According to some aspects, the primary UE may split UL traffic between the radio links of the primary UE and the secondary UE to utilize the radio resources of both UEs. The primary UE may transmit certain uplink (UL) packets to the network via a primary radio link and distribute certain other UL packets to the secondary UE via the D2D link for transmission to the network via a secondary radio link. In a similar manner, downlink (DL) traffic for the primary UE may be split between the primary link and the secondary link, wherein the secondary UE forwards DL packets received from the network to the primary UE.

The exemplary embodiments are described with regard to a UE. However, the use of a UE is merely provided for illustrative purposes. The exemplary embodiments may be utilized with any electronic component that is configured with the hardware, software, and/or firmware to exchange information (e.g., control information) and/or data with the network. Therefore, the UE as described herein is used to represent any suitable electronic device.

Additionally, the UE as described herein may refer to a primary UE configured for a first subset of UE aggregation functionalities or one or more secondary UEs configured for a second subset of UE aggregation functionalities. However, the person skilled in the art would understand that the functionalities of the primary UE and the secondary UE may be included in a single UE, and that the UEs as described herein are not limited to operation as only a primary UE or a secondary UE in a UE aggregation operation.

The exemplary embodiments are also described with regard to a <NUM> New Radio (NR) network. However, reference to a <NUM> NR network is merely provided for illustrative purposes. The exemplary embodiments may be utilized with any network including a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, to be explained below. Therefore, the <NUM> NR network as described herein may represent any type of network that can implement a UE aggregation functionality in a similar manner as described herein.

<FIG> shows an exemplary network arrangement <NUM> according to various exemplary embodiments. The exemplary network arrangement <NUM> includes UEs <NUM>, <NUM>. Those skilled in the art will understand that the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may be any type of electronic component that is configured to communicate via a network, e.g., a component of a connected car, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a smartphone, a phablet, an embedded device, a wearable, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc..

Throughout this description, the terms UE <NUM>, UE and transmitting device may be used interchangeably. Additionally, the terms UE <NUM>, further UE and receiving device may also be used interchangeably. It should also be understood that an actual network arrangement may include any number of UEs being used by any number of users. Thus, the example of two UEs <NUM>, <NUM> is merely provided for illustrative purposes.

The UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may communicate directly with one or more networks. In the example of the network configuration <NUM>, the networks with which the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may wirelessly communicate are a <NUM> NR radio access network (<NUM> NR-RAN) <NUM>, an LTE radio access network (LTE-RAN) <NUM> and a wireless local access network (WLAN) <NUM>. These types of networks may support sidelink communication, e.g. over a 3GPP-specified sidelink (SL). However, the UE <NUM> may also communicate with other types of networks and the UE <NUM> may also communicate with networks over a wired connection. Therefore, the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may include a <NUM> NR chipset to communicate with the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM>, an LTE chipset to communicate with the LTE-RAN <NUM> and an ISM chipset to communicate with the WLAN <NUM>.

The <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM> and the LTE-RAN <NUM> may be portions of cellular networks that may be deployed by cellular providers (e.g., Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.). These networks <NUM>, <NUM> may include, for example, cells or base stations (Node Bs, eNodeBs, HeNBs, eNBS, gNBs, gNodeBs, macrocells, microcells, small cells, femtocells, etc.) that are configured to send and receive traffic from UEs that are equipped with the appropriate cellular chip set. The WLAN <NUM> may include any type of wireless local area network (WiFi, Hot Spot, IEEE <NUM>. 11x networks, etc.).

The UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may connect to the <NUM> NR-RAN via the gNB 120A. The gNB 120A may be configured with the necessary hardware (e.g., antenna array), software and/or firmware to perform massive multiple in multiple out (MIMO) functionality. Massive MIMO may refer to a base station that is configured to generate a plurality of beams for a plurality of UEs. Reference to a single gNB 120A is merely for illustrative purposes. The exemplary embodiments may apply to any appropriate number of gNBs. The UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may also connect to the LTE-RAN <NUM> via the eNB 122A.

Those skilled in the art will understand that any association procedure may be performed for the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> to connect to the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM> and the LTE-RAN <NUM>. For example, as discussed above, the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM> and the LTE-RAN <NUM> may be associated with a particular cellular provider where the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> and/or the user thereof has a contract and credential information (e.g., stored on a SIM card). Upon detecting the presence of the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM>, the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may transmit the corresponding credential information to associate with the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM>. More specifically, the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may associate with a specific base station (e.g., the gNB 120A of the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM>, the eNB 122A of the LTE-RAN <NUM>).

The UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may also communicate with one another directly using a device-to-device (D2D) communications link. This D2D link may comprise e.g., a sidelink (SL), a wired connection, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. In the D2D link, the information and/or data transmitted directly from one endpoint to the other endpoint (e.g., from the UE <NUM> to the UE <NUM>) does not go through a cell (e.g., gNB 120A, eNB 122A). When a sidelink is configured, the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may receive information from a cell regarding how the sidelink is to be established, maintained and/or utilized. Thus, a network (e.g., the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM>, LTE-RAN <NUM>) may control the sidelink. In other embodiments, the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may control the sidelink. Regardless of the nature of the D2D link, the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may maintain a downlink/uplink to a currently camped cell (e.g., gNB 120A, eNB 122A) and a D2D link to the other UE simultaneously. Although only two UEs <NUM>, <NUM> are shown, the exemplary embodiments described herein may extend to additional UEs, as will be described below.

In addition to the networks <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> the network arrangement <NUM> also includes a cellular core network <NUM>, the Internet <NUM>, an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) <NUM>, and a network services backbone <NUM>. The cellular core network <NUM> may be considered to be the interconnected set of components that manages the operation and traffic of the cellular network. The cellular core network <NUM> also manages the traffic that flows between the cellular network and the Internet <NUM>. The IMS <NUM> may be generally described as an architecture for delivering multimedia services to the UE <NUM> using the IP protocol. The IMS <NUM> may communicate with the cellular core network <NUM> and the Internet <NUM> to provide the multimedia services to the UE <NUM>. The network services backbone <NUM> is in communication either directly or indirectly with the Internet <NUM> and the cellular core network <NUM>. The network services backbone <NUM> may be generally described as a set of components (e.g., servers, network storage arrangements, etc.) that implement a suite of services that may be used to extend the functionalities of the UE <NUM> in communication with the various networks.

<FIG> shows an exemplary UE <NUM> according to various exemplary embodiments. The UE <NUM> will be described with regard to the network arrangement <NUM> of <FIG>. The UE <NUM> may include a processor <NUM>, a memory arrangement <NUM>, a display device <NUM>, an input/output (I/O) device <NUM>, a transceiver <NUM>, and other components <NUM>. The other components <NUM> may include, for example, a SIM card, an embedded SIM (eSIM), an audio input device, an audio output device, a power supply, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the UE <NUM> to other electronic devices, etc. The UE <NUM> illustrated in <FIG> may also represent the UE <NUM>.

The processor <NUM> may be configured to execute a plurality of engines of the UE <NUM>. For example, the engines may include a UE aggregation engine <NUM>. According to some aspects of the exemplary embodiments, the UE aggregation engine <NUM> may be considered a new protocol layer located in between the IP layer and the SDAP layer (or PDCP layer, for some LTE devices) in the UE user plane.

For a primary UE (e.g., UE <NUM>), the UE aggregation engine <NUM> may perform operations including receiving UL traffic from the IP layer and determining whether to transmit the UL packets via a primary network link between the primary UE (e.g., UE <NUM>) and the network or to distribute the UL traffic to a secondary UE (e.g., UE <NUM>) for transmission via a secondary network link between the secondary UE <NUM> and the network. The primary and secondary UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may communicate via a device-to-device (D2D) link, wherein the primary UE transmits some portion of UL packets to the second UE, which then forwards the packets to the network via the second network link.

For the primary UE <NUM>, the UE aggregation engine <NUM> may perform further operations including adding an aggregation header (e.g., generic routing encapsulation (GRE) header) to the IP packets (encapsulating the packets). The primary UE <NUM> may receive a network configuration for directing the flow of the IP packets to the primary link or the secondary link, to be explained in further detail below.

For the secondary UE <NUM>, the UE aggregation engine <NUM> may perform operations including receiving the encapsulated UL packets and re-transmitting the packets via the secondary link based on the information included in the aggregation header. The UE aggregation engine <NUM> may receive a network configuration establishing the aggregation functionality for the secondary UE <NUM>.

The UE aggregation functionalities of the primary UE <NUM> and the secondary UE <NUM> described above may be included in both UEs <NUM>, <NUM>. The distinction between the operations performed by the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> is provided only for illustrative purposes with respect to the operation of the exemplary embodiments, wherein one UE is configured as a primary UE and one or more further UEs are configured as secondary UEs.

The above referenced engines each being an application (e.g., a program) executed by the processor <NUM> is only exemplary. The functionality associated with the engines may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the UE <NUM> or may be a modular component coupled to the UE <NUM>, e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. The engines may also be embodied as one application or separate applications. In addition, in some UEs, the functionality described for the processor <NUM> is split among two or more processors such as a baseband processor and an applications processor. The exemplary embodiments may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a UE.

The memory arrangement <NUM> may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UE <NUM>. The display device <NUM> may be a hardware component configured to show data to a user while the I/O device <NUM> may be a hardware component that enables the user to enter inputs. The display device <NUM> and the I/O device <NUM> may be separate components or integrated together such as a touchscreen. The transceiver <NUM> may be a hardware component configured to establish a connection with the <NUM> NR-RAN <NUM>, the WLAN <NUM>, etc. Accordingly, the transceiver <NUM> may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies).

<FIG> shows an exemplary network base station, in this case gNB 120A, according to various exemplary embodiments. As noted above with regard to the UE <NUM>, the gNB 120A may represent a serving cell for the UE <NUM>. The gNB 120A may represent any access node of the <NUM> NR network through which the UE <NUM> may establish a connection and manage network operations.

The gNB 120A may include a processor <NUM>, a memory arrangement <NUM>, an input/output (I/O) device <NUM>, a transceiver <NUM>, and other components <NUM>. The other components <NUM> may include, for example, an audio input device, an audio output device, a battery, a data acquisition device, ports to electrically connect the gNB 120A to other electronic devices, etc..

The processor <NUM> may be configured to execute a plurality of engines of the gNB 120A. For example, the engines may include a UE aggregation engine <NUM> configured to perform operations for the gNB 120A including configuring the UE aggregation functionality for the primary and secondary UEs. For example, the gNB 120A may configure aggregation layers for the primary and secondary UEs that control the flow of traffic to/from the primary UE. The gNB 120A may additionally receive the encapsulated packets from the primary and secondary UEs and reorder the packets according to the sequence number and the identifying information, e.g., QoS flow ID, included in the aggregation header. The aggregation functionality described herein may be abstracted as an "Aggregation layer," similar to the UEs <NUM>, <NUM>.

The functionality of the UE aggregation engine <NUM> may be implemented via one or more applications, may also be represented as a separate incorporated component of the gNB 120A or may be a modular component coupled to the gNB 120A, e.g., an integrated circuit with or without firmware. For example, the integrated circuit may include input circuitry to receive signals and processing circuitry to process the signals and other information. In addition, in some gNBs, the functionality described for the processor <NUM> is split among a plurality of processors (e.g., a baseband processor, an applications processor, etc.). The exemplary aspects may be implemented in any of these or other configurations of a gNB.

The memory <NUM> may be a hardware component configured to store data related to operations performed by the UEs <NUM>, <NUM>. The I/O device <NUM> may be a hardware component or ports that enable a user to interact with the gNB 120A. The transceiver <NUM> may be a hardware component configured to exchange data with the UE <NUM> and any other UE in the system <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> may operate on a variety of different frequencies or channels (e.g., set of consecutive frequencies). Therefore, the transceiver <NUM> may include one or more components (e.g., radios) to enable the data exchange with the various networks and UEs.

Various mechanisms exist by which a UE may transmit/receive data over multiple different communications paths. For example, in dual-connectivity (DC) operation, a UE is configured to transmit and receive on a plurality of component carriers (CCs) corresponding to cells associated with different RATs, e.g., EN-DC operation wherein the UE uses a master cell group (MCG) corresponding to LTE and a secondary cell group (SCG) corresponding to <NUM> NR, or NE-DC operation, where the MCG corresponds to NR and the SCG corresponds to LTE.

In another example, in LTE/WLAN Radio Level Integration Using IPSec Tunnel (LWIP) operation, the UE may use WLAN radio resources via IPsec protocol tunneling to authenticate and encrypt packets (e.g., IP packets) sent over the WLAN network connection. IPsec tunneling may include encapsulating the entirety of original IP packets and adding a new packet header, thereby protecting the original header of the IP packets. In the uplink, IP packets may be encapsulated in a GRE packet (formally, in the LWIPEP layer), and the LWIPEP packets can then be sent over either LTE or WLAN (via a secure IP tunnel).

The generic routing encapsulation (GRE) protocol provides a means for encapsulating data packets using one protocol inside the packets of another protocol to establish a direct point-to-point connection across a network, otherwise referred to as GRE tunneling. A first GRE entity may add a GRE header to received data packets including information for the origin/destination of the packet and transmit the encapsulated packets to a second GRE entity for e.g. decryption and/or further processing.

According to various exemplary embodiments described herein, a UE aggregation functionality is configured for a primary UE and at least one secondary UE wherein UL traffic generated by the primary UE, e.g., IP packets, may be routed to the network via the radio link of the primary UE or the radio link of the secondary UE.

<FIG> shows an exemplary network arrangement <NUM> for UE aggregation operations according to various exemplary embodiments described herein. Similar to the network arrangement <NUM> described above in <FIG>, the network arrangement <NUM> includes two UEs, e.g., UE <NUM> and UE <NUM>, and a network base station, e.g., gNB 120A. In this example, the UE <NUM> is a primary UE and the UE <NUM> is a secondary UE in the UE aggregation configuration. However, as described above, the respective UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may operate as either a primary UE or a secondary UE, depending on UE capability and/or the network configuration.

As shown, the UE <NUM> (primary UE) is connected to the gNB 120A via a primary link <NUM> and to the UE <NUM> (secondary UE) via a D2D link <NUM>, e.g., a wired connection, a WLAN link, a sidelink, etc. The UE <NUM> is connected to the gNB 120A via a secondary link <NUM>. Although only two UEs <NUM>, <NUM> are shown, additional UEs may be configured as secondary UEs and have respective D2D links to the primary UE <NUM> and radio links to the gNB 120A.

According to various exemplary embodiments to be described below, the primary UE <NUM> may transmit UL data packets to the gNB 120A via the primary link <NUM> or to the secondary UE <NUM> via the D2D link <NUM>. The secondary UE <NUM>, upon receiving the UL packets, can forward the packets to the gNB 120A. In this way, the primary UE <NUM> can aggregate the bandwidth of the secondary UE <NUM> with its own bandwidth to transmit/receive a greater amount of data via the primary and secondary links <NUM>, <NUM> than would be possible using only the primary link <NUM>. The exemplary embodiments are agnostic to the type of D2D link used between the primary and secondary UEs <NUM>, <NUM>.

The aggregation functionality may be abstracted as a new protocol layer, referred to herein as an "Aggregation layer" added between the IP layer and the UE user plane protocol stack, e.g., the SDAP of a <NUM> UE (or some LTE UEs) or the PDCP of some LTE UEs. The Aggregation layer is designed to have a minimal impact on the existing user plane (SDAP, PDCP, RLC) access stratum (AS) layers and may support both aggregation and duplication. As will be described in further detail below, the network can configure the Aggregation layer to control how the UL traffic is distributed.

A tunneling mechanism is used to encapsulate the IP packets and transmit the IP packets over the multiple paths. The tunneling mechanism is described herein as GRE, however any protocol capable of carrying a Sequence field and a Key field, as described in further detail below, can be used. For example, the Generic Network Virtualization Encapsulation (GENEVE) tunneling mechanism may be used. To encapsulate the IP packets, the Aggregation layer adds a GRE header to the IP packets.

According to one aspect, the exemplary GRE header contains both a Sequence field and a Key field. The Sequence field provides an ordering for the IP packets, and the Key field provides identifying information for the packet. In one embodiment, when the network is a <NUM> NR R_AN or an LTE network using the SDAP layer, the Key field may include a quality of service (QoS) flow identifier (ID) (QFI) and either a data radio bearer (DRB) ID or a protocol data unit (PDU) session ID for the IP packet. In another embodiment, when the network is an LTE network not using the SDAP layer (wherein the PDCP is the highest layer in the user plane), the Key field may include a DRB ID.

In some exemplary embodiments, the above-described fields included in the GRE header result in a <NUM> byte overhead, which is an acceptable overhead particularly when the packet size is large and when reliability is more important than capacity.

The encapsulated packets may be transmitted from the primary UE to the network over the primary link or to the secondary UE over the D2D link. Specifically, to be described below, the Aggregation layer of the primary UE may transmit the packets to the Aggregation layer of the secondary UE, which may process the GRE header and forward the packets to the network over the secondary link based on the identifying information included in the header and/or based on a network configuration for e.g., packet filtering.

<FIG> shows a protocol stack arrangement <NUM> for a primary UE and a secondary UE in a UE aggregation arrangement according to various exemplary embodiments described herein. Similar to above, in the arrangement <NUM>, the UE <NUM> functions as the primary UE and the UE <NUM> functions as the secondary UE. Each of the UEs <NUM>, <NUM> may be configured for UE aggregation functionality using an Aggregation layer located in the UE protocol stack below the IP layer and above the user plane (e.g., the SDAP, PDCP, RLC and MAC layers in NR and some LTE releases, or the PDCP, RLC and MAC layers in some other LTE releases). The primary UE <NUM> has a primary radio link <NUM> with the network and a D2D link <NUM> with the secondary UE <NUM>, and the secondary UE <NUM> has a secondary radio link <NUM> with the network.

The protocol stack of the primary UE <NUM> comprises an application layer / higher layers <NUM> which may generate UL data packets for transmission to the network. For example, a user of the UE <NUM> may interact with software applications being executed by, for example, the processor of the UE. Below the higher layers <NUM> is the IP layer <NUM>, which may perform packet addressing and routing by e.g., assigning IP addresses to the data packets received from the higher layers <NUM> and transmitting the packets to the Aggregation layer <NUM>.

The Aggregation layer <NUM> of the primary UE <NUM> is configured for various functionalities for executing the UE aggregation operations, as described above. In one aspect, the Aggregation layer <NUM> identifies information for the UL packets received from the higher layers <NUM>, <NUM>, e.g., QFI and/or DRB ID or PDU session ID, and adds the GRE header to the packets including the sequence and key information. In some embodiments, the Aggregation layer <NUM> can determine which QoS flows can be aggregated, which QoS flows can be duplicated, and which QoS flows can be both aggregated and duplicated, for example when multiple secondary UEs <NUM> are involved. The Aggregation layer <NUM> may then submit the encapsulated packets to the lower layers <NUM> of the primary UE <NUM>, e.g., the SDAP layer, or to the Aggregation layer <NUM> of the secondary UE <NUM> over the D2D link <NUM>. The Aggregation layer <NUM> of the secondary UE <NUM> may process the encapsulated packets and transmit the packets to the lower layers <NUM> of the secondary UE <NUM> for transmission to the network. For example, the secondary UE <NUM> may use the information included in the GRE header or a network configuration to direct the traffic to the network in accordance therewith.

When the network (e.g., gNB 120A) receives the packets via the primary and secondary links <NUM>, <NUM>, the gNB 120A processes the GRE header, identifies the QoS flow and reorders the packets based on the Sequence numbers.

The network may be aware of the identifying information for the packet, e.g., the QFI and the DRB ID or PDU session ID, when the packet is received. For example, DRBs may be mapped one-to-one to logical channels, and the network knows which logical channel the received data belongs to. Thus, in some embodiments, the Key field may be dropped from the GRE header for the UL transmissions via the primary and secondary links <NUM>, <NUM> to reduce the overhead of the UE aggregation operation. Similarly, for DL transmissions to the UE, the UE may be aware of the identifying information for the packet so the Key field may be dropped from the GRE header.

The Aggregation layer is configured to distribute the data flows via the multiple paths based on a network configuration. The network can configure which QoS flows are to be processed by the Aggregation layer, how many UEs are involved, and whether and how to perform packet duplication. The packets can be distributed to the UEs in multiple ways for transmission to the network.

In one embodiment, the network may configure packet duplication for the primary UE, wherein the first UE duplicates the encapsulated packets and transmits the encapsulated packets via the first radio link and transmits the duplicated packets to the second UE for transmission via the second radio link. The packet duplication can be configured via RRC signaling and activated via RRC or MAC CE.

In another embodiment, a threshold may be provided wherein, when a UL data buffer size is less than the threshold, the primary UE transmits via a prioritized link, e.g., the primary link. If the buffer size is above the threshold, the primary UE may distribute the traffic via both the primary and secondary links.

According to the claimed invention, the network restricts the traffic flow based on QFI. Another non-claimed example is to restrict network traffic based on DRB ID. For example, the network may configure which QoS flows / DRBs can be aggregated and which QoS flows / DRBs can be submitted by the secondary UEs. In some embodiments, the network may configure which QoS flows can be aggregated, which QoS flows can be duplicated, and which QoS flows can be both aggregated and duplicated, for example when multiple secondary UEs are involved.

In still another embodiment, the network may provide a splitting ratio and a window per QFI/DRB. For example, the network may configure a splitting ratio and a time window wherein <NUM>% of the packets in a certain time window are routed to the primary UE and <NUM>% of the packets in the window are routed to the secondary UE. In another example, the network may configure a splitting ratio and a packet count window wherein <NUM>% of packets in every set of <NUM> packets are routed to the primary UE, <NUM>% of the packets are routed to a first secondary UE, and <NUM>% of the packets are routed to a second secondary UE.

<FIG> shows an exemplary method <NUM> for UE aggregation operations according to various exemplary embodiments described herein.

In <NUM>, a primary UE and at least one secondary UE establish a D2D connection. The D2D connection may comprise a sidelink, a wired connection, WiFi, Bluetooth, or any other D2D connection. The primary and one or more secondary UEs are each additionally connected to a network, e.g., the <NUM> NR RAN, via a network base station.

In <NUM>, the primary and secondary UEs receive a network configuration for UE aggregation operation. The configuration includes an identification of the primary UE and one or more secondary UEs and a protocol layer abstraction (Aggregation layer) for performing the respective aggregation functionalities. For example, the Aggregation layer of the primary UE is configured for receiving and encapsulating IP packets and routing the packets via the multiple UEs for transmission to the network. According to the claimed invention, the primary UE is configured with rules for packet transmission via the multiple paths based on QFI. As a non-claimed alternative, the primary UE may be configured with rules for packet transmission via the multiple paths based on DRB ID. The Aggregation layers of the secondary UEs may be configured to receive the encapsulated packets, determine the identifying information for the packet and transmit the packets via respective secondary radio links.

In <NUM>, the primary UE generates UL traffic that is delivered from the IP layer to the Aggregation layer.

In <NUM>, the primary UE encapsulates each UL packet with a header e.g., a GRE header. The GRE header includes a Sequence and Key field, as described above.

In <NUM>, the primary UE determines whether the UL traffic can be aggregated and/or duplicated across the secondary UE(s) and, when it can be aggregated/duplicated, which UE(s) the traffic should be routed to. The primary UE makes this determination based on the network configuration. For example, the network may configure certain QoS flows or DRBs for aggregation/duplication. In another example, the network may configure a buffer size threshold wherein, when the buffer size is below the threshold, a certain radio link is prioritized. In still another example, the network may configure a splitting ratio for distributing the packets across the UEs.

In <NUM>, the primary UE transmits the encapsulated packets in accordance with the network configuration. The packets may be transmitted to the lower layers of the primary UE for transmission to the network or to the Aggregation layer(s) of the secondary UEs.

In <NUM>, the secondary UEs process any packets received from the primary UE and forward the packets to the network in accordance with the information included in the GRE header and/or based on a network configuration for e.g. packet filtering. In some embodiments, the identifying information (QFI, DRB ID, PDU session ID) can be removed from the GRE header prior to forwarding the packet.

In <NUM>, the network receives the packets across the multiple radio links and reorders the packets based on the Sequence field in the GRE header and the QoS flow for the packet.

Claim 1:
A processor of a first user equipment, UE, configured to perform operations comprising:
establishing (<NUM>) a device-to-device, D2D, connection with a second UE;
generating (<NUM>) internet protocol, IP, packets for uplink, UL, transmission to a network and identifying a quality of service, QoS, flow for the packets;
encapsulating (<NUM>) each packet with a header comprising a QoS flow identifier, QFI;
receiving (<NUM>) a network configuration to restrict a traffic flow based on QFI, the configuration including parameters for determining (<NUM>) whether to distribute the encapsulated packets to lower layers of the first UE for transmission to a network via the first radio link or to the second UE for transmission to the network via the second radio link based on the QFI;
transmitting (<NUM>), in accordance with the network configuration, a first portion of the encapsulated packets to the network via a first radio link; and
transmitting (<NUM>), in accordance with the network configuration, a second portion of the encapsulated packets to the second UE via the D2D connection for transmission to the network via a second radio link of the second UE.