PATENT DOCUMENT

Publication Number: US-11178555-B2
Application Number: US-201816499857-A
Country: US
Kind Code: B2

Title: Enhanced network slice management for wireless communications

Abstract:
This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatuses related to enhanced network slice management. An apparatus may identify a first network slice instance management action request. The apparatus may identify a second network slice instance management action request. The apparatus may determine a coordination between the first modification and the second modification based on a received policy.

Claims:
What is claimed is: 
     
       1. An apparatus, comprising logic, at least a portion of the logic is in hardware, the logic comprising computer-executable instructions to:
 identify a first network slice instance management action request, wherein the first network slice instance management action request is associated with a first modification request of an active network slice instance for one or more devices of a cellular network; 
 identify a second network slice instance management action request, wherein the second network slice instance management action request is associated with a second modification request of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second modification request conflicts with the first modification request; and 
 determine a coordination between the first modification request and the second modification request based on a received policy, 
 wherein the logic is arranged for a 3GPP wireless network, wherein the first network slice instance management action request is associated with an automated reconfiguration of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second network slice instance management action request is associated with an automated optimization of the active network slice instance. 
 
     
     
       2. An apparatus, comprising logic, at least a portion of the logic is in hardware, the logic comprising computer-executable instructions to:
 identify a first network slice instance management action request, wherein the first network slice instance management action request is associated with a first modification request of an active network slice instance for one or more devices of a cellular network; 
 identify a second network slice instance management action request, wherein the second network slice instance management action request is associated with a second modification request of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second modification request conflicts with the first modification request; and 
 
       determine a coordination between the first modification request and the second modification request based on a received policy,
 wherein the first network slice instance management action request is associated with an automated reconfiguration or optimization of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second network slice instance management action request is associated with an automated healing of the active network slice instance. 
 
     
     
       3. An apparatus, comprising logic, at least a portion of the logic is in hardware, the logic comprising computer-executable instructions to:
 identify a first network slice instance management action request, wherein the first network slice instance management action request is associated with a first modification request of an active network slice instance for one or more devices of a cellular network; 
 identify a second network slice instance management action request, wherein the second network slice instance management action request is associated with a second modification request of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second modification request conflicts with the first modification request; and 
 
       determine a coordination between the first modification request and the second modification request based on a received policy,
 wherein the first network slice instance management action request is associated with an automated reconfiguration, optimization or healing of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second network slice instance management action request is associated with a manual modification of the active network slice instance.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
     This application is a U.S. National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. 371 and claims the priority benefit of International Application No. PCT/US2018/029452, filed Apr. 25, 2018, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 62/491,112, filed Apr. 27, 2017, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in full. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This disclosure generally relates to systems, methods, and devices for wireless communications and, more particularly, to enhanced network slice management. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Traditionally, equipment for wireless communications networks may be deployed as physical equipment having software and hardware bound together. However, virtualization technologies have evolved to support network function software that may be executed by commercial hardware. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  depicts network slicing management functions, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2A  depicts an illustrative process for requesting and accessing network slice instance related management data, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2B  depicts an illustrative process for requesting and accessing network slice instance related management data, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  depicts an illustrative process for requesting and accessing network slice instance related management data, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4A  illustrates a flow diagram of a process for coordinating network slice instance management action requests, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4B  illustrates a flow diagram of a process for coordinating network slice subnet instance management action requests, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4C  illustrates a flow diagram of a process for managing network slice management data exposure, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an architecture of a system of a network, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure, of a system to support network function virtualization (NFV). 
         FIG. 6  illustrates example components of a device, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 7 . illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 8  is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 9  is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 10  illustrates components of a core network, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 11  is a block diagram illustrating components of a system to support network function virtualization, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 12  is a block diagram illustrating components, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc. in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrase “A or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). 
     A cellular network may be partitioned into slices to support various service requirements, and each network slice instance may be targeted for a specific Quality of Service (QoS) requirement. The automated reconfiguration of network slice instance/network slice subnet instance (NSI/NSSI), automated optimization of NSI/NSSI, and automated healing of NSI/NSSI have been captured in a draft technical specification TR 28.801 [3GPP Draft TR 28.801: “Study on management and orchestration of network slicing for next generation network”]. These actions could all trigger the modification of the NSI/NSSI, so when these actions are requested concurrently, coordination may be needed to avoid and/or resolve a conflict. 
     NSI related management data sharing with customers also has been captured in the draft technical specification TR 28.801 [3GPP Draft TR 28.801: “Study on management and orchestration of network slicing for next generation network”]. However, a solution may be desirable to support NSI related management data exposure to a customer. 
     For example, a conflict may arise for a component network function (NF) shared between multiple NSIs when one NSI requests optimization/reconfiguration by changing a parameter of the NF (e.g., coverage related parameters of a cell), and another NSI concurrently requests to compensate a faulty NF using this NF by changing the same or a relevant parameter with a conflicting or opposite value. Because the actual modifications on the component NSSI and NF are delegated to a network slice subnet management function (NSSMF), a network slice management function (NSMF) may coordinate these management actions with the NSSMF to prevent, if possible, or to resolve the conflicts to minimize the negative impact to the NSI(s). A policy, with consideration of the assigned priority of the NSIs, may be pre-configured to the NSMF for coordination of management actions of NSI. Thus, enhanced conflict resolution and/or avoidance for NSI/NSSI management actions may be desirable. 
     In addition, when an NSI is offered as a service to a communication service customer, the communication service customer may need to access management data (e.g., performance measurements, alarm information) related to the NSI. It may be desirable to provide enhanced access of NSI related management data. 
     Embodiments herein relate to coordination of NSI management actions, coordination of NSSI management actions, and coordination of NSI management data exposure to a customer. 
     One or more embodiments may include a Communication Service Management Function (CSMF) supported by one or more processors able to receive the request to collect the NSI management data from a Communication Service Customer, and send a response to the Communication Service Customer with the result of the request. 
     One or more embodiments may include the CSMF, upon receipt of the request from Communication Service Customer being able to send a request to collect NSI management data to a Network Slice Management Function (NSMF), and receive a result from the NSMF regarding the request. 
     One or more embodiments may include the NSMF being able to receive a request to collect NSI management data from the CSMF, send the result to the CSMF about the request, and collect the NSI management data. 
     One or more embodiments may include the NSMF being able to inform the CSMF about the availability of NSI management data. 
     One or more embodiments may the CSMF being able is to receive information from NSMF about the availability of NSI management data; and/or obtain the NSI management data from the NSMF, and/or inform the Communication Service Customer about the availability of the NSI management data. 
     One or more embodiments may the Communication Service Customer being able to receive information from the CSMF about the availability of NSI management data, and/or obtain the NSI management data from the CSMF. 
     One or more embodiments may include the CSMF being able to inform the Communication Service Customer from which NSMF the management data may be accessed. 
     One or more embodiments may include the NSMF being able to inform the Communication Service Customer about the availability of NSI management data. 
     One or more embodiments may include the Communication Service Customer being able to receive the information from the CSMF regarding which NSMF the management data can be accessed from, and/or receive the information from the NSMF regarding the availability of NSI management data, and/or obtain the NSI management data from the NSMF. 
     One or more embodiments may include the CSMF being able to inform the Communication Service Customer from which NSMF the NSI management data can be requested and accessed, and/or send a request to the NSMF to authorize the Communication Service Customer to collect the management data related to NSI directly from the NSMF. 
     One or more embodiments may include the Communication Service Customer being able to send a request to collect NSI management data to Network Slice Management Function (NSMF), receive a result from NSMF regarding the request, and/or receive information from the NSMF regarding the availability of the NSI management data, and/or obtain the NSI management data from the NSMF. 
     One or more embodiments may include the NSMF being able to authorize the Communication Service Customer to collect management data related to an NSI directly from the NSMF, receive a request to collect the NSI management data from the Communication Service Customer, send a result to the Communication Service Customer regarding the request, collect the NSI management data, and/or inform the Communication Service Customer about the availability of the NSI management data. 
     One or more embodiments may include NSI management data having NSI related performance measurements and/or alarm information. 
     One or more embodiments may include the being able to coordinate management actions for an NSI to prevent and/or resolve a conflict, and/or receive policy for coordination of management actions for a NSI. 
     One or more embodiments may include the management actions being an automated reconfiguration of an NSI, an automated optimization of an NSI, an automated healing of an NSI, and manual modifications of an NSI. 
     One or more embodiments may include the Network Slice Subnet Management Function (NSSMF) being able to coordinate management actions for a Network Slice Subnet Instance (NSSI) to prevent and/or resolve a conflict, and/or receive a policy for coordination of management actions for an NSSI. 
     One or more embodiments may include the management actions being an automated reconfiguration of an NSSI, an automated optimization of an NSSI, an automated healing of an NSSI, and manual modifications of an NSSI. 
     The above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. Numerous other examples, configurations, processes, etc., may exist, some of which are described in detail below. Example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying figures. 
       FIG. 1  depicts network slicing management functions  100 , in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to the management framework of slicing management functions depicted by  FIG. 1 , a communication service management function  102  may delegate to a network slice management function (NSMF)  104 , which may delegate to a network slice subnet management function  106 . 
     In one or more embodiments, an illustrative use case on coordination of network slicing management actions may include coordination of NSI management actions. For example, a pre-condition may be that the NSI is activated. The NSMF  104  may need to perform NSI modifications when the following events are triggered: automated reconfiguration of an NSI to support an updated network slice requirements received from the communication service management function  102 . If an NSI is shared by multiple communication services, NSMF  104  may receive updated network slice requirements for each communication service, respectively. Another triggered event may include an automated optimization of an NSI, automated healing of an NSI, or manual modifications of an NSI. There may be conflicts when two or more of the management actions are requested concurrently. NSMF  104  may coordinate these management action requests to prevent, and if not evitable, resolve the conflicts to minimize the negative impact to the NSI(s). 
     In one or more embodiments, a policy may be received and/or pre-configured by NSMF  104  for coordination of management actions of NSI. The policy may provide rules for resolving and/or avoiding management action conflicts. For example, the policy may prioritize some modifications (e.g., prioritize some NSIs, or prioritize potential actions) over others. 
     There may be post-conditions for coordination of management actions. A post-condition example may be that the conflicts between the management actions of an NSI may be prevented or resolved. 
     A management action may include automatically reconfiguring an NSI. For example, NSMF  104  may receive updated NSI requirements and may apply modifications automatically to one or more NSIs. The NSMF  104  may monitor and/or measure an NSI periodically. If a QoS requirement (e.g., latency) is not met for the NSI, NSMF  104  may reconfigure the NSI. 
     In the case of one or more cells experiencing an outage, the NSMF  104  may reconfigure the cells or may use other cells. For example, cells from a neighboring network may be used to accommodate cell outages. 
     Enhanced coordination of management actions for NSIs may improve latency and allow cellular operations to meet short latency and high bandwidth requirements, for example. 
     In one or more embodiments, the NSMF  104  may optimize mobility-related parameters between two cells to solve too early or too late handovers. Meanwhile, the NSMF  104  may modify the same mobility-related parameters for load balancing between the two cells. 
     In one or more embodiments, coordination of NSSI management actions may occur. There may be preconditions, such as the NSSI is activated. The NSSMF  106  may perform NSSI modifications when the following events are triggered: automated reconfiguration of an NSSI to support updated network slice subnet related requirements received from NSMF  104 . Another triggered event may include automated optimization of and NSSI, automated healing of an NSSI, or manual modifications of an NSSI. There may be conflicts when two or more of the management actions are requested concurrently. NSSMF  106  may coordinate these management actions to prevent, and if not evitable, resolve the conflicts to minimize the negative impact to the NSSI. 
     In one or more embodiments, a policy may be received and/or pre-configured to NSSMF  106  for coordination of management actions of NSSI. The policy may provide rules for resolving and/or avoiding management action conflicts. For example, the policy may prioritize some modifications over others. 
     There may be post-conditions for coordination of management actions. A post-condition example may be that the conflicts between the management actions of an NSSI may be prevented or resolved. 
     A management action may include automatically reconfiguring an NSSI. For example, NSSMF  106  may receive updated NSSI requirements and may apply modifications automatically to one or more NSSIs. 
     In one or more embodiments, NSSMF  106  may monitor and/or measure an NSSI periodically. If a QoS requirement (e.g., latency) is not met for the NSSI, NSSMF  106  may reconfigure the NSSI. 
     In the case of one or more cells experiencing an outage, the NSSMF  106  may reconfigure the cells or may use other cells. For example, cells from a neighboring network may be used to accommodate cell outages. 
     Enhanced coordination of management actions for NSSIs may improve latency and allow cellular operations to meet short latency and high bandwidth requirements, for example. 
     In one or more embodiments, the NSSMF  106  may optimize mobility-related parameters between two cells to solve too early or too late handovers, meanwhile, the NSSMF  106  may modify the same mobility-related parameters for load balancing between the two cells. 
     In one or more embodiments, there may be requirements for coordination of network slicing management actions. For example, cellular communications may be required to meet short latency and/or high bandwidth requirements. 
     NSMF  104  may be able to prevent the conflict between automated NSI management actions, and the conflict between automated and non-automated NSI management actions. NSMF  104  may be able to resolve the conflict between automated NSI management actions, and the conflict between automated and non-automated NSI management actions. NSMF  104  may be able to allow pre-configuration of a policy for coordination of NSI management actions. 
     In one or more embodiments, there may be requirements for coordination of NSSI management actions. To coordinate NSSI management actions, which may conflict, NSSMF  106  may be able to prevent the conflict between automated NSSI management actions, and the conflict between automated and non-automated NSSI management actions. NSSMF  106  may be able to resolve the conflict between automated NSSI management actions, and the conflict between automated and non-automated NSSI management actions. NSSMF  106  may be able to allow pre-configuration of policy for coordination of NSSI management actions. 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 2A  depicts an illustrative process  200  for requesting and accessing network slice instance related management data, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2A , process  200  may provide enhanced solutions for network slice management data exposure to a customer. A communication service management function (CSMF  202 ) may communicate with a communication service customer  204  and a network slice management function (NSMF)  206 . Process  200  may facilitate NSI related management data exposure to communication service customer  204 . 
     In one or more embodiments, when an NSI is offered as service to communication service customer  204  (e.g., see clauses 5.1.6.3 and 5.1.6.10 of 3GPP Draft TR 28.801: “Study on management and orchestration of network slicing for next generation network”), communication service customer  204  may need to access management data (e.g., performance measurements, alarm information, etc.) related to an NSI. Communication service customer  204  may access the NSI related management data by one of the following ways: request and access via CSMF  202 , request via CSMF  202  and access directly from NSMF  206 , and authorize by CSMF  202 , and/or request and access directly from NSMF  206 . 
     In one or more embodiments, communication service customer  204  may request and/or access NSI related management data from CSMF  202 . At (1), communication service customer  204  may request to collect management data related to an NSI from CSMF  202 . At (2), based on the request from communication service customer  204 , CSMF  202  may request to collect the management data related to an NSI from NSMF  206 . At (3), NSMF  206  may collect the management data related to an NSI and inform CSMF  202  about the availability of the management data. At (4), CSMF  202  may receive the management data from NSMF  206 . At (5), CSMF  202  may inform the communication service customer  204  about the availability of the management data. At (6), communication service customer may receive the management data from CSMF  202 . The communication service customer may be associated with a network/service operator, so the management data may be used by the communication service customer and/or communicated to the network/service operator. 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 2B  depicts an illustrative process  220  for requesting and accessing network slice instance related management data, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 2B , process  220  may provide enhanced solutions for network slice management data exposure to a customer. A CSMF  222  may communicate with a communication service customer  224  and an NSMF  226 . Process  220  may facilitate NSI related management data exposure to communication service customer  224 . 
     In one or more embodiments, communication service customer  224  may request NSI management data via CSMF  222 , and may access the NSI management data directly from NSMF  226 . At (1), communication service customer  224  may request to collect the management data related to an NSI from CSMF  222 . At (2), per the request from communication service customer  224 , CSMF  222  may request to collect the management data related to an NSI from NSMF  226 . At (3), NSMF  226  may collect the management data related to an NSI and inform CSMF  222  about the availability of the management data. At (4), CSMF  222  may inform communication service customer  224  about the availability of the management data. At (5), communication service customer  224  may receive the data directly from NSMF  226 . The communication service customer may be associated with a network/service operator, so the management data may be used by the communication service customer and/or communicated to the network/service operator. 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 3  depicts an illustrative process  300  for requesting and accessing network slice instance related management data, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3 , process  300  may provide enhanced solutions for network slice management data exposure to a customer. A CSMF  302  may communicate with a communication service customer  304  and an NSMF  306 . Process  300  may facilitate NSI related management data exposure to communication service customer  304 . 
     In one or more embodiments, communication service customer  304  may be authorized by CSMF  302 , and may request and access NSI management data directly from NSMF  306 . At (1), communication service customer  304  may request to collect the management data related to NSI from CSMF  302 . CSMF  302  may inform the communication service customer  304  from which NSMF (e.g., NSMF  306 ) the management data may be accessed. At (2), CSMF  302  may request NSMF  306  to authorize the communication service customer  304  to collect the management data related to an NSI directly from NSMF  306 . At (3), communication service customer  304  may request NSMF  306  to collect the management data. At (4), NSMF  306  may collect the management data and inform communication service customer  304  about the availability of the management data. At (5), communication service customer  304  may receive the management data from NSMF  306 . The communication service customer may be associated with a network/service operator, so the management data may be used by the communication service customer and/or communicated to the network/service operator. 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 4A  illustrates a flow diagram of a process  400  for coordinating network slice instance management action requests, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     At block  402 , one or more processors (e.g., associated with NSMF  104  of  FIG. 1 ) may identify a first NSI management action request. The NSI management request may be received from a communication service management function (e.g., CSMF  102  of  FIG. 1 ) or triggered by the NSMF, and the first NSI management action request may be associated with a first modification request of an active NSI for one or more devices of a cellular network. The NSMF may also receive a policy for coordinating the management action requests. For example, the policy may instruct the NSMF regarding priorities of NSIs and/or potential actions associated with one or more NSIs. Mobility-related parameters associated with two cells, for example, may be affected by management action requests, and changing mobility-related parameters may result in too early or too late handovers and/or parameter changes which may result in a network not meeting latency and/or bandwidth requirements. The policy may provide instructions for managing management action requests to avoid or resolve conflicts. 
     At block  404 , the one or more processors may identify a second NSI management action request. The second NSI management request may be received from a communication service management function (e.g., CSMF  102  of  FIG. 1 ) or triggered by the NSMF, and the second NSI management action request may be associated with a second modification request of the active NSI. The second modification request may conflict with the first modification request. The policy may be used by the NSMF to determine a conflict avoidance or resolution of the first and second modifications. For example, rather than responding sequentially to each individual management action request, multiple management action requests may be considered, and an optimal response may be determined. 
     At block  406 , the one or more processors may determine a coordination between the first modification request and the second modification request based on a received policy. The first and second NSI management action requests may be associated with any combination of automated reconfiguration of the active NSI, automated optimization of the active NSI, automated healing of the active NSI, or manual modification of the active NSI. For example, network management functions may be reconfigured. An active NSI may be monitored and measured to determine, for example, if a latency and/or bandwidth requirement is not being met, and if not, then the NSI may be reconfigured by the NSMF. If a cell outage occurs, for example, other cells (e.g., neighbor cells) may be reconfigured. 
     In one or more embodiments, at least a portion of logic of a device or apparatus may be in hardware and may include computer-executable instructions to perform process  400 . 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 4B  illustrates a flow diagram of a process  420  for coordinating network slice subnet instance management action requests, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     At block  422 , one or more processors (e.g., associated with NSSMF  106  of  FIG. 1 ) may identify a first NSSI management action request. The first NSSI management action request may be received from a communication service management function (e.g., CSMF  102  of  FIG. 1 ) or triggered by the NSSMF, and the first NSSI management action request may be associated with a first modification request of an active NSSI for one or more devices of a cellular network. The NSSMF may also receive a policy for coordinating the management action requests. For example, the policy may instruct the NSSMF regarding priorities of NSSIs and/or potential actions associated with one or more NSSIs. Mobility-related parameters associated with two cells, for example, may be affected by management action requests, and changing mobility-related parameters may result in too early or too late handovers and/or parameter changes which may result in a network not meeting latency and/or bandwidth requirements. The policy may provide instructions for managing management action requests to avoid or resolve conflicts. 
     At block  424 , the one or more processors may identify a second NSSI management action request. The second NSSI management action request may be received from a CSMF or triggered by the NSSMF, and the second NSSI management action request may be associated with a second modification request of the active NSSI. The second modification request may conflict with the first modification request. The policy may be used by the NSSMF to determine a conflict avoidance or resolution of the first and second modifications. For example, rather than responding sequentially to each individual management action request, multiple management action requests may be considered, and an optimal response may be determined. 
     At block  426 , the one or more processors may determine a coordination between the first modification request and the second modification request based on a received policy. The first and second NSSI management action requests may be associated with any combination of automated reconfiguration of the active NSSI, automated optimization of the active NSSI, automated healing of the active NSSI, or manual modification of the active NSSI. For example, network management functions may be reconfigured. An active NSSI may be monitored and measured to determine, for example, if a latency and/or bandwidth requirement is not being met, and if not, then the NSSI may be reconfigured by the NSSMF. If a cell outage occurs, for example, other cells (e.g., neighbor cells) may be reconfigured. 
     In one or more embodiments, at least a portion of logic of a device or apparatus may be in hardware and may include computer-executable instructions to perform process  420 . 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 4C  illustrates a flow diagram of a process  450  for managing network slice management data exposure, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     At block  452 , one or more processors of a device (e.g., NSMF  206  of  FIG. 2A , NSMF  226  of  FIG. 2B , NSMF  306  of  FIG. 3 ) may identify a management data request. The management data request may be received for a communication service customer (e.g., communication service customer  204  of  FIG. 2A , communication service customer  224  of  FIG. 2B , communication service customer  304  of  FIG. 3 ), and the management data request may be associated with an NSI used by one or more devices of a cellular network. 
     At block  454 , the one or more processors may cause to send an indication of an availability of the management data. The availability indication may be sent to a CSMF (e.g., CSMF  202  of  FIG. 2A , CSMF  222  of  FIG. 2B , CSMF  302  of  FIG. 3 ) or to a communication service customer (e.g., communication service customer  204  of  FIG. 2A , communication service customer  224  of  FIG. 2B , communication service customer  304  of  FIG. 3 ) associated with the NSI. 
     At block  456 , the one or more processors may cause to send the management data received for the network slice management function, the management data associated with the NSI. The management data may be sent to the CSMF or to the communication service customer. 
     In one or more embodiments, at least a portion of logic of a device or apparatus may be in hardware and may include computer-executable instructions to perform process  450 . 
     It is understood that the above descriptions are for purposes of illustration and are not meant to be limiting. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates an architecture of a system  500  of a network, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     The system  500  is shown to include a user equipment (UE)  501  and a UE  502 . The UEs  501  and  502  are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wireless communications interface. 
     In some embodiments, any of the UEs  501  and  502  can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network. 
     The UEs  501  and  502  may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN)  510 —the RAN  510  may be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs  501  and  502  utilize connections  503  and  504 , respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections  503  and  504  are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like. 
     In this embodiment, the UEs  501  and  502  may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface  505 . The ProSe interface  505  may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH). 
     The UE  502  is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP)  506  via connection  507 . The connection  507  can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP  506  would comprise a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi®) router. In this example, the AP  506  is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below). 
     The RAN  510  can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections  503  and  504 . These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), a 5G Core Network (5GC), next Generation NodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN  510  may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node  511 , and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node  512 . 
     Any of the RAN nodes  511  and  512  can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs  501  and  502 . In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes  511  and  512  can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN  510  including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management. 
     In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs  501  and  502  can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes  511  and  512  over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers. 
     In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes  511  and  512  to the UEs  501  and  502 , while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks. 
     The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs  501  and  502 . The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs  501  and  502  about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes  511  and  512  based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs  501  and  502 . The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs  501  and  502 . 
     The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8). 
     Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced the control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as an enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations. 
     The RAN  510  is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN)  520 —via an S1 interface  513 . In embodiments, the CN  520  may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment the S1 interface  513  is split into two parts: the S1-U interface  514 , which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes  511  and  512  and the serving gateway (S-GW)  522 , and the S1-mobility management entity (MME) interface  515 , which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes  511  and  512  and MMEs  521 . 
     In this embodiment, the CN  520  comprises the MMEs  521 , the S-GW  522 , the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW)  523 , and a home subscriber server (HSS)  524 . The MMEs  521  may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs  521  may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS  524  may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities&#39; handling of communication sessions. The CN  520  may comprise one or several HSSs  524 , depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS  524  can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc. 
     The S-GW  522  may terminate the S1 interface  513  towards the RAN  510 , and routes data packets between the RAN  510  and the CN  520 . In addition, the S-GW  522  may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement. 
     The P-GW  523  may terminate a SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW  523  may route data packets between an EPC network and external networks such as a network including the application server  530  (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface  525 . Generally, the application server  530  may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW  523  is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server  530  via an IP communications interface  525 . The application server  530  can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs  501  and  502  via the CN  520 . 
     The P-GW  523  may further be a node for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF)  526  is the policy and charging control element of the CN  520 . In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE&#39;s Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE&#39;s IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF  526  may be communicatively coupled to the application server  530  via the P-GW  523 . The application server  530  may signal the PCRF  526  to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF  526  may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server  530 . 
       FIG. 6  illustrates example components of a device  600 , in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     In some embodiments, the device  600  may include application circuitry  602 , baseband circuitry  604 , Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry  606 , front-end module (FEM) circuitry  608 , one or more antennas  610 , and power management circuitry (PMC)  612  coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device  600  may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device  600  may include less elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry  602 , and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device  600  may include additional elements such as, for example, memory/storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) implementations). 
     The application circuitry  602  may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry  602  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include memory/storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory/storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device  600 . In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry  602  may process IP data packets received from an EPC. 
     The baseband circuitry  604  may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry  604  may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry  606  and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  606 . Baseband processing circuity  604  may interface with the application circuitry  602  for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry  606 . For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  604  may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor  604 A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor  604 B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor  604 C, or other baseband processor(s)  604 D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), si6h generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry  604  (e.g., one or more of baseband processors  604 A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry  606 . In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors  604 A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory  604 G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU)  604 E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry  604  may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), preceding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry  604  may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments. 
     In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  604  may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP)  604 F. The audio DSP(s)  604 F 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. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry  604  and the application circuitry  602  may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC). 
     In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  604  may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry  604  may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry  604  is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry. 
     RF circuitry  606  may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry  606  may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry  606  may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  608  and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry  604 . RF circuitry  606  may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry  604  and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry  608  for transmission. 
     In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry  606  may include mixer circuitry  606   a , amplifier circuitry  606   b  and filter circuitry  606   c . In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry  606  may include filter circuitry  606   c  and mixer circuitry  606   a . RF circuitry  606  may also include synthesizer circuitry  606   d  for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry  608  based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry  606   d . The amplifier circuitry  606   b  may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry  606   c  may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry  604  for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. 
     In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry  606   d  to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry  608 . The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry  604  and may be filtered by filter circuitry  606   c.    
     In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  606   a  may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyne operation. 
     In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry  606  may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry  604  may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry  606 . 
     In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. 
     In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  606   d  may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry  606   d  may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider. 
     The synthesizer circuitry  606   d  may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry  606   a  of the RF circuitry  606  based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry  606   d  may be a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer. 
     In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry  604  or the applications processor  602  depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor  602 . 
     Synthesizer circuitry  606   d  of the RF circuitry  606  may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle. 
     In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry  606   d  may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry  606  may include an IQ/polar converter. 
     FEM circuitry  608  may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas  610 , amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry  606  for further processing. FEM circuitry  608  may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry  606  for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas  610 . In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry  606 , solely in the FEM  608 , or in both the RF circuitry  606  and the FEM  608 . 
     In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry  608  may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry  606 ). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry  608  may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry  606 ), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas  610 ). 
     In some embodiments, the PMC  612  may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry  604 . In particular, the PMC  612  may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC (direct current) conversion. The PMC  612  may often be included when the device  600  is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC  612  may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics. 
     While  FIG. 6  shows the PMC  612  coupled only with the baseband circuitry  604 . However, in other embodiments, the PMC  6   12  may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry  602 , RF circuitry  606 , or FEM  608 . 
     In some embodiments, the PMC  612  may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device  600 . For example, if the device  600  is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device  600  may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power. 
     If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device  600  may transition off to an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device  600  goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device  600  may not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, it must transition back to RRC_Connected state. 
     An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable. 
     Processors of the application circuitry  602  and processors of the baseband circuitry  604  may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry  604 , alone or in combination, may be used execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry  602  may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     As discussed above, the baseband circuitry  604  of  FIG. 6  may comprise processors  604 A- 604 E and a memory  604 G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors  604 A- 604 E may include a memory interface,  704 A- 704 E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory  604 G. 
     The baseband circuitry  604  may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface  712  (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory e6ernal to the baseband circuitry  604 ), an application circuitry interface  714  (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry  602  of  FIG. 6 ), an RF circuitry interface  716  (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry  606  of  FIG. 6 ), a wireless hardware connectivity interface  718  (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface  720  (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC  612 . 
       FIG. 8  is an illustration of a control plane protocol stack, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     In this embodiment, a control plane  800  is shown as a communications protocol stack between the UE  501  (or alternatively, the UE  502 ), the RAN node  511  (or alternatively, the RAN node  512 ), and the MME  521 . 
     The PHY layer  801  may transmit or receive information used by the MAC layer  802  over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer  801  may further perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC), power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization and handover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, such as the RRC layer  805 . The PHY layer  801  may still further perform error detection on the transport channels, forward error correction (FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulation of physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physical channels, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing. 
     The MAC layer  802  may perform mapping between logical channels and transport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) from one or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be delivered to PHY via transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUs to one or more logical channels from transport blocks (TB) delivered from the PHY via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUs onto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction through hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ), and logical channel prioritization. 
     The RLC layer  803  may operate in a plurality of modes of operation, including Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer  803  may execute transfer of upper layer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation, segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers. The RLC layer  803  may also execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs for AM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers, and perform RLC re-establishment. 
     The PDCP layer  804  may execute header compression and decompression of IP data  913 , maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequence delivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers, eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lower layers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher control plane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification of control plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and perform security operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection, integrity verification, etc.). 
     The main services and functions of the RRC layer  805  may include broadcast of system information (e.g., included in Master Information Blocks (MIBs) or System Information Blocks (SIBs) related to the non-access stratum (NAS)), broadcast of system information related to the access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and release of an RRC connection between the UE and E-UTRAN (e.g., RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connection modification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration, maintenance and release of point to point Radio Bearers, security functions including key management, inter radio access technology (RAT) mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting. Said MIBs and SIBs may comprise one or more information elements (IEs), which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures. 
     The UE  501  and the RAN node  511  may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack comprising the PHY layer  801 , the MAC layer  802 , the RLC layer  803 , the PDCP layer  804 , and the RRC layer  805 . 
     The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols  806  form the highest stratum of the control plane between the UE  501  and the MME  521 . The NAS protocols  806  support the mobility of the UE  501  and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE  501  and the P-GW  523  of  FIG. 5 . 
     The S1 Application Protocol (S1-AP) layer  815  may support the functions of the S1 interface and comprise Elementary Procedures (EPs). An EP is a unit of interaction between the RAN node  511  and the CN  520 . The S1-AP layer services may comprise two groups: UE-associated services and non UE-associated services. These services perform functions including, but not limited to: E-UTRAN Radio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication, mobility, NAS signaling transport, RAN Information Management (RIM), and configuration transfer. 
     The Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer (alternatively referred to as the SCTP/IP layer)  814  may ensure reliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node  511  and the MME  521  based, in part, on the IP protocol, supported by the IP layer  813 . The L2 layer  812  and the L1 layer  811  may refer to communication links (e.g., wired or wireless) used by the RAN node and the MME to exchange information. 
     The RAN node  511  and the MME  521  may utilize an S1-MME interface to exchange control plane data via a protocol stack comprising the L1 layer  811 , the L2 layer  812 , the IP layer  813 , the SCTP layer  814 , and the S1-AP layer  815 . 
       FIG. 9  is an illustration of a user plane protocol stack, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     In this embodiment, a user plane  900  is shown as a communications protocol stack between the UE  501  (or alternatively, the UE  502 ), the RAN node  511  (or alternatively, the RAN node  512 ), the S-GW  522 , and the P-GW  523 . The user plane  900  may utilize at least some of the same protocol layers as the control plane  800 . For example, the UE  501  and the RAN node  511  may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the PHY layer  801 , the MAC layer  802 , the RLC layer  803 , the PDCP layer  804 . 
     The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the user plane (GTP-U) layer  904  may be used for carrying user data within the GPRS core network and between the radio access network and the core network. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or PPP formats, for example. The UDP and IP security (UDP/IP) layer  903  may provide checksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing different functions at the source and destination, and encryption and authentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node  511  and the S-GW  522  may utilize an S1-U interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the L1 layer  811 , the L1 layer  812 , the UDP/IP layer  903 , and the GTP-U layer  904 . The S-GW  522  and the P-GW  523  may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via a protocol stack comprising the L1 layer  811 , the L2 layer  812 , the UDP/IP layer  903 , and the GTP-U layer  904 . As discussed above with respect to  FIG. 8 , NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE  501  and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivity between the UE  501  and the P-GW  523 . 
       FIG. 10  illustrates components of a core network, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     The components of the CN  520  may be implemented in one physical node or separate physical nodes including components to read and execute instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium). In some embodiments, Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is utilized to virtualize any or all of the above described network node functions via executable instructions stored in one or more computer readable storage mediums (described in further detail below). A logical instantiation of the CN  520  may be referred to as a network slice  1001 . The network slice  1001  may include an HSS  524 , an MME  521 , an S-GW  522 , in addition to a network sub-slice  1002 . A logical instantiation of a portion of the CN  520  may be referred to as a network sub-slice  1002  (e.g., the network sub-slice  1002  is shown to include the PGW  523  and the PCRF  526 ). 
     NFV architectures and infrastructures may be used to virtualize one or more network functions, alternatively performed by proprietary hardware, onto physical resources comprising a combination of industry-standard server hardware, storage hardware, or switches. In other words, NFV systems can be used to execute virtual or reconfigurable implementations of one or more EPC components/functions. 
       FIG. 11  is a block diagram illustrating components of a system  1100  to support NFV, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     The system  1100  is illustrated as including a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM)  1102 , a network function virtualization infrastructure (NFVI)  1104 , a VNF manager (VNFM)  1106 , virtualized network functions (VNFs)  1108 , an element manager (EM)  1110 , an NFV Orchestrator (NFVO)  1112 , and a network manager (NM)  1114 . 
     The VIM  1102  manages the resources of the NFVI  1104 . The NFVI  1104  can include physical or virtual resources and applications (including hypervisors) used to execute the system  1100 . The VIM  1102  may manage the life cycle of virtual resources with the NFVI  1104  (e.g., creation, maintenance, and tear down of virtual machines (VMs) associated with one or more physical resources), track VM instances, track performance, fault and security of VM instances and associated physical resources, and expose VM instances and associated physical resources to other management systems. 
     The VNFM  1106  may manage the VNFs  1108 . The VNFs  1108  may be used to execute EPC components/functions. The VNFM  1106  may manage the life cycle of the VNFs  1108  and track performance, fault and security of the virtual aspects of VNFs  1108 . The EM  1110  may track the performance, fault and security of the functional aspects of VNFs  1108 . The tracking data from the VNFM  1106  and the EM  1110  may comprise, for example, performance measurement (PM) data used by the VIM  1102  or the NFVI  1104 . Both the VNFM  1106  and the EM  1110  can scale up/down the quantity of VNFs of the system  1100 . 
     The NFVO  1112  may coordinate, authorize, release and engage resources of the NFVI  1104  in order to provide the requested service (e.g., to execute an EPC function, component, or slice). The NM  1114  may provide a package of end-user functions with the responsibility for the management of a network, which may include network elements with VNFs, non-virtualized network functions, or both (management of the VNFs may occur via the EM  1110 ). 
       FIG. 12  is a block diagram illustrating one or more components, in accordance with one or more example embodiments of the present disclosure. 
     The one or more components able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically,  FIG. 12  shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources  1200  including one or more processors (or processor cores)  1210 , one or more memory/storage devices  1220 , and one or more communication resources  1230 , each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus  1240 . For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor  1202  may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources  1200 . 
     The processors  1210  (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor  1212  and a processor  1214 . 
     The memory/storage devices  1220  may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices  1220  may include, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc. 
     The communication resources  1230  may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices  1204  or one or more databases  1206  via a network  1208 . For example, the communication resources  1230  may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components. 
     Instructions  1250   a  and/or instructions  1250   b  may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors  1210  to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions  1250   a  and/or instructions  1250   b  may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors  1210  (e.g., within the processor&#39;s cache memory), the memory/storage devices  1220 , or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions  1250  may be transferred to the hardware resources  1200  from any combination of the peripheral devices  1204  or the databases  1206 . Accordingly, the memory of processors  1250   a  and/or instructions  1250   b , the memory/storage devices  1220 , the peripheral devices  1204 , and the databases  1206  are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media. 
     In some embodiments, the electronic device(s), network(s), system(s), chip(s) or component(s), or portions or implementations thereof, of Figures herein may be configured to perform one or more processes, techniques, or methods as described herein, or portions thereof. 
     The following examples pertain to further embodiments. 
     Example 1 may include the Communication Service Management Function (CSMF) supported by one or more processors is to: receive the request to collect the NSI management data from Communication Service Customer; and send the response to Communication Service Customer with the result of the request. 
     Example 2 may include the method according to example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the CSMF supported by one or more processors, upon receipt of the request from Communication Service Customer, is to: send the request to collect the NSI management data to Network Slice Management Function (NSMF); and receive the result from NSMF about the request. 
     Example 3 may include the method according to examples 1 and 2 or some other example herein, wherein the NSMF supported by one or more processors is to: receive the request to collect the NSI management data from CSMF; and send the result to CSMF about the request; and collect the NSI management data. 
     Example 4 may include the method according to examples 1 and 3 or some other example herein, wherein the NSMF supported by one or more processors is to: inform CSMF about the availability of the NSI management data. 
     Example 5 may include the method according to examples 1 to 4 or some other example herein, wherein the CSMF, is to: receive the information from NSMF about the availability of the NSI management data; and/or get the NSI management data from NSMF; and/or inform Communication Service Customer about the availability of the NSI management data. 
     Example 6 may include the method according to examples 1 to 5 or some other example herein, wherein the Communication Service Customer: receives the information from CSMF about the availability of the NSI management data; and/or gets the NSI management data from CSMF. 
     Example 7 may include the method according to examples 1 and 2 or some other example herein, wherein the CSMF supported by one or more processors is to: inform Communication Service Customer from which NSMF the management data can be accessed. 
     Example 8 may include the method according to examples 1 to 3 or some other example herein, wherein the NSMF supported by one or more processors is to: inform Communication Service Customer about the availability of the NSI management data. 
     Example 9 may include the method according to examples 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8 or some other example, wherein the Communication Service Customer: receives the information from CSMF from which NSMF the management data can be accessed; and/or receives the information from NSMF about the availability of the NSI management data; and/or gets the NSI management data from NSMF. 
     Example 10 may include the method according to example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the CSMF supported by one or more processors is to: inform the Communication Service Customer from which NSMF the NSI management data can be requested and accessed; and/or send a request to NSMF to authorize the Communication Service Customer to collect the management data related to NSI directly from the NSMF. 
     Example 11 may include the method according to examples 1 and 10 or some other example herein, wherein the Communication Service Customer: sends the request to collect the NSI management data to Network Slice Management Function (NSMF); and receives the result from NSMF about the request; and/or receives the information from NSMF about the availability of the NSI management data; and/or gets the NSI management data from NSMF. 
     Example 12 may include the method according to examples 1, 10 and 11 or some other example herein, wherein the NSMF supported by one or more processors is to: authorize the Communication Service Customer to collect the management data related to NSI directly from the NSMF; and/or receive the request to collect the NSI management data from Communication Service Customer; and send the result to Communication Service Customer about the request; and collect the NSI management data; and/or inform Communication Service Customer about the availability of the NSI management data. 
     Example 13 may include the method according to examples 1 to 12 or some other example herein, wherein the NSI management data include NSI related performance measurements and/or the alarm information. 
     Example 14 may include the NSMF supported by one or more processors is to: coordinate the management actions for a NSI to prevent and/or resolve the conflict; and/or receive the policy for coordination of the management actions for a NSI. 
     Example 15 may include the method according to example 14 or some other example herein, wherein the management actions include automated reconfiguration of NSI, automated optimization of NSI, automated healing of NSI and manual modifications of NSI. 
     Example 16 may include the Network Slice Subnet Management Function (NSSMF) supported by one or more processors is to: coordinate the management actions for a Network Slice Subnet Instance (NSSI) to prevent and/or resolve the conflict; and/or receive the policy for coordination of the management actions for a NSSI. 
     Example 17 may include the method according to example 16 or some other example herein, wherein the management actions include automated reconfiguration of NSSI, automated optimization of NSSI, automated healing of NSSI and manual modifications of NSSI. 
     Example 18 may include an apparatus, comprising logic, at least a portion of the logic being in hardware, the logic comprising computer-executable instructions to: identify a first network slice instance management action received from a communication service management function, wherein the first network slice instance management action is associated with a first modification of an active network slice instance for one or more devices of a cellular network; identify a second network slice instance management action received from the communication service management function, wherein the second network slice instance management action is associated with a second modification of the active network slice instance, and wherein the second modification conflicts with the first modification; and determine a coordination between the first modification and the second modification based on a received policy. 
     Example 19 may include a computer-readable medium (e.g., a transitory or non-transitory computer-readable medium) storing computer-executable instructions which when executed by one or more processors result in performing operations comprising: identifying a first network slice subnet instance management action received from a communication service management function, wherein the first network slice subnet instance management action is associated with a first modification of an active network slice subnet instance for one or more devices of a cellular network; identifying a second network slice subnet instance management action received from the communication service management function, wherein the second network slice subnet instance management action is associated with a second modification of the active network slice subnet instance, and wherein the second modification conflicts with the first modification; and determining a coordination between the first modification and the second modification based on a received policy. 
     Example 20 may include a method, comprising: identifying, by one or more processors, a first network slice subnet instance management action received from a communication service management function, wherein the first network slice subnet instance management action is associated with a first modification of an active network slice subnet instance for one or more devices of a cellular network; identifying a second network slice subnet instance management action received from the communication service management function, wherein the second network slice subnet instance management action is associated with a second modification of the active network slice subnet instance, and wherein the second modification conflicts with the first modification; and determining a coordination between the first modification and the second modification based on a received policy. 
     Example 21 may include an apparatus, comprising logic, at least a portion of the logic being in hardware, the logic comprising computer-executable instructions to: identify a management data request received from a communication service customer, wherein the management data request is associated with a network slice instance used by one or more devices of a cellular network; cause to send an indication of the management data request to a network slice management function associated with the network slice instance; identify management data received from the network slice management function, the management data associated with the network slice instance; and cause to send a response to the communication service customer, the response associated with the management data request. 
     Example 22 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example 23 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example 24 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or any other method or process described herein. 
     Example 25 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or portions or parts thereof. 
     Example 26 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or portions thereof. 
     Example 27 may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-21, or portions or parts thereof. 
     Example 28 may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein. 
     Example 29 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein. 
     Example 30 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. 
     Example 31 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein. 
     The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Metadata:
Filing Date: 20180425
Publication Date: 20211116
Grant Date: 20211116
Priority Date: 20170427
Inventors: Yao, Yizhi
CHOU, JOEY
Assignee: APPLE INC
CPC Classifications: [{"code": "H04L41/0894", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L41/0895", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W24/02", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W24/02", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W88/18", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W88/18", "inventive": false, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L41/0893", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W48/18", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L41/0893", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W24/02", "inventive": true, "first": true, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W88/18", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04W48/18", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L41/0895", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}, {"code": "H04L41/0894", "inventive": true, "first": false, "tree": "[]"}]
Family ID: 63919250