TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure is generally related to wireless communications networks and is more particularly related to sidelink communications among user equipments (UEs) associated with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

BACKGROUND

UAV communications in 3 GPP

The world is witnessing a widespread and increasing use of drones, or, more technically, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), in many segments of the economy and in our daily life. There are numerous use cases for UAVs in industry, goods transportation and delivery, surveillance, media production, etc.

Traditionally, the UAVs can only be flown by a controller within a visual line of sight (VLoS). Realizing the great potential of connecting drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLoS), via a cellular network, members of the 3 ^rd -Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) have specified multiple features in LTE Rel-15, aiming at improving the efficiency and robustness of terrestrial LTE network for providing aerial connectivity services, particularly for low altitude UAVs. These features target both command-and- control traffic for flying the drone and the data (also known as payload) traffic from the drone to the cellular network. Key features specified include:

• Support for subscription-based identification

• Height reporting when UAV crosses a height threshold. The report includes height, location (3D), horizontal and vertical speed.

• Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) or Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ) reporting per event of N cells’ signal power above a threshold. The report includes RSRP/RSRQ/location(3D).

• UE-specific uplink (UL) power control.

• Flight path information provided from UE to eNB. This includes network polling and list of waypoints (3D location), time stamp if available.

These features were introduced to target special needs when serving the UAVs by LTE network, e.g., the need for flying mode detection, interference detection, and interference mitigation. The first important issue was flying mode detection, which is also related to interference detection, as the interference conditions for flying aerial UEs are different from aerial UE in terrestrial mode. For interference detection, which may also serve as input to flying mode detection, an enhancement to existing events triggering of RSRP/RSRQ/RS-SINR reports was introduced in LTE Rel-15. The UE may be configured to trigger an event such as A3, A4, A5, which all consider neighbor cell measurements. In such event triggers, a measurement report is triggered when multiple cells’ measured RSRPs (RSRQs/RS-SINRs) are above a threshold.

Another input to flying mode detection is event-triggered height and location reporting. A new configurable event within Radio Resource Management (RRM) with height threshold is introduced for Rel-15 Aerial UEs. When the UE is configured with an event, a report is triggered when UE’s altitude crosses the threshold altitude. In addition to flying mode detection, the exact height information is considered useful as the network may choose to reconfigure, for example, measurement reporting configurations for the UE when it crosses a height threshold. Figure 1 depicts this situation, showing a network (e.g., the E-UTRAN) reconfiguring an aerial UE based on flying altitude. In this figure, when the UE is below a height of 100m, the aerial UE is RRC configured with measurement reporting configurations and event-triggered height/location reporting corresponding to a height threshold of 200m. As the aerial UE crosses a height threshold of 200m, a report is trigged from the UE to the network. After receiving the report from the aerial UE, the network RRC reconfigures the aerial UE with new measurement reporting configurations.

Sidelink communications

3GPP has specified a LTE D2D (device-to-device) technology, also known as the sidelink (SL) or the PC5 interface, as part of Release 12 (Rel-12). The target use case (UC) was Proximity Services, ProSe, covering both communication and discovery. The design was enhanced during Rel-13. In Rel-14, the LTE SL was extensively redesigned to support vehicular communications (commonly referred to as V2X) for road-safety applications and some further enhancements were specified during Rel-15. From the point of view of the lowest radio layer (PHY layer), the LTE SL uses broadcast communication, i.e., the transmission from a transmitter UE targets all receiver UEs in its proximity.

In Rel-16, 3GPP introduced the sidelink for the 5G new radio (NR). The driving UCs were advanced V2X UCs (e.g., cooperative driving or sensor sharing) with more stringent requirements than those typically served using the LTE SL. To meet these requirements, the NR SL was designed to support both broadcast, groupcast, and unicast communications at PHY layer. Notably, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback was introduced for SL groupcast and unicast.

Both LTE SL and NR SL can operate with and without network coverage and with varying degrees of interaction between the UEs (user equipment) and the NW (network), including support for network-less operation.

In the ongoing Rel-17, 3GPP is working on enhancements to the NR SL. The ambition is not only to improve the capabilities of NR SL for V2X but also to address other UCs such as National Security and Public Safety (NSPS) as well as commercial UCs such as Network Controlled Interactive Services (NCIS). In particular, inter-UE coordination in resource allocation is being specified to improve the reliability of SL communications, whereas SL discontinuous reception (SL-DRX) and partial resource sensing are being specified for power/energy saving purposes.

There are two resource allocation modes in SL. In the first mode, SL transmissions by the UEs are scheduled by a network node (e.g., eNB or gNB), i.e., the network node grants the SL resources to the UEs. This network-scheduled mode is often referred to as Mode 1 in NR SL Rel-16 and as Mode 3 in LTE SL Rel-14. In the second mode, UEs autonomously find resources for their SL transmissions in a set of resources configured by the network or preconfigured, often referred to as SL resource pool. This mode of resource allocation is referred to as Mode 2 in in NR SL Rel-16 and as Mode 4 in LTE SL Rel-14. In the latter mode, each UE typically tries to decode control information sent by the other UEs and measures interference level on different resource units to find the most suitable resources for the UE’s transmissions, a process often referred to as resource sensing.

Sidelink communications for UA Vs

There is a growing interest in the telecom industry to enhance the 5G NR standards to support UAV communication. This includes serving the UAVs as aerial-UEs via uplink and downlink (i.e., the Uu interface) and supporting direct communication between UAVs (i.e., via the PC5 interface). The latter is considered useful for the collision Detection and Avoidance (D/A) use cases, for example, whereby the UAVs are able to detect the presence of one another and to react to avoid collisions. In fact, 3GPP has taken these demands into account when setting the requirements for remote identification of UAVs in 3GPP TS 22.125 V17.3.0 (March 2021), as can be seen in the following excerpt from that standards document:

5.2.2 Decentralized UAS [Unmanned Aircraft System ] traffic management

[R-5.2.2-001] The 3GPP system shall enable a UAV to broadcast the following data for identifying UAV(s) in a short-range area for collision avoidance: e.g. UAV identities if needed based on different regulation requirements, UAV type, current location and time, flight route information, current speed, operating status.

[R-5.2.2-002] The 3GPP system shall be able to support a UAV to transmit a message via network connection for identifying itself as an UAV to the other UAV(s).

[R-5.2.2-003] The 3GPP system shall enable UAV to preserve the privacy of the owner of the UAV, UAV pilot, and the UAV operator in its broadcast of identity information.

[R-5.2.2-004] The 3GPP system shall enable a UAV to receive local broadcast communication transport service from other UA V in short range.

[R-5.2.2-005] A UAV shall be able to use a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service in the coverage or out of coverage of a 3GPP network.

[R-5.2.2-006] A UAV shall be able to use a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service when the sending and receiving UAVs are served by the same or different PLMNs.

[R-5.2.2-007] The 3GPP system shall support a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service at relative speeds of up to 320kmph.

[R-5.2.2-008] The 3GPP system shall support a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service with variable message payloads of 50-1500 bytes, not including security-related message component(s).

[R-5.2.2-009] The 3GPP system shall support a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service which supports a range of up to 600m.

[R-5.2.2-010] The 3GPP system shall support a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service which can transmit messages at a frequency of at least 10 messages per second.

[R-5.2.2-011] The 3GPP system shall support a direct UAV to UAV local broadcast communication transport service which can transmit messages with an end-to-end latency of at most 100ms. In summary, it is required that the 3GPP system support the broadcasting of UAV identity and other information related to UAV’s speed and route over the PC5 interface for the purpose of collision detection and avoidance. Moreover, the UAV-to-UAV communication over PC5 should be able to support regularly broadcasted messages with certain payload size and latency requirements, both in network coverage and out of network coverage.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM)

It is of utmost importance to keep the airspace safe and accessible. Therefore, a system called UTM is being developed in different parts of the world to manage the traffic of the UAS (a UAS is composed of a UAV and a UAV controller used by an operator with unique credentials and identities.) According to NASA, UTM is a collaborative, automated, and federated airspace management approach that enables safe, efficient, and equitable small UAS operations at scale. The concept of UTM is being adopted and implemented by many countries and regions in the world, e.g., in the US, Europe,

Japan, Australia, etc.

According to reference [1], the UTM provides many flight-related functions for UAVs and UAV operators, for example:

• Remote identification: enabling UAV identification.

• Operation planning: flight planning considering various aspects e.g., UAV performance, whether condition.

• Operator messaging: message exchange between operators for e.g., position and status information.

• FAA messaging: providing on-demand, periodic, or event-triggered communications with FAA systems to meet regulatory requirements.

• Mapping: information about airspace restrictions, obstacles, and sensitive regions.

• Conflict advisory: real-time alerting for collision avoidance.

Mobile networks can enable reliable connectivity between the UAV and its controller. Meanwhile, UTM can connect to the UAV and the UAV controller through the core network and the radio access network. An illustration of UAS-to-UTM connectivity is provided in Figure 2. There currently exist certain challenge(s). While the regular broadcasting messages for collision detection and avoidance (D/A) over SL by the UAVs as required by SA1 appear to resemble the regular broadcasting of traffic-safety messages for V2X, which drove the design of LTE SL Rel-14 (and was also fulfilled by NR SL Rel-16), there is an important factor that may affect the reuse of the existing SL for UAV. That factor concerns the energy efficiency aspect. Specifically, unlike road vehicles, UAVs are generally more energy-constrained due to limited battery capacity. As a result, broadcasting self-identifying messages in a periodic manner might quickly drain the UAVs’ battery. This calls for solutions to enhance the existing SL for UAV communications, taking into account energy constraints.

SUMMARY

Certain aspects of the disclosure and their embodiments may provide solutions to these or other challenges. These target a good trade-off between maximizing the utility of UAV communication over PC5 for D/A services and minimizing the energy consumption at the UAVs. The solutions target different layers in the 3GPP protocol stack and include the following:

Enabling/disabling the D/A services based on side information about air traffic condition.

Adapting D/A message transmission rate based on side information about air traffic condition.

Configuring/adapting SL-DRX or partial sensing parameters based on side information about air traffic condition.

The core of the solutions lies in various methods for utilizing side information about air traffic conditions to adapt the SL communication protocols for broadcasting UAV messages over the SL interface.

An example method, according to some of the embodiments described herein, is carried out by a network node in or connected to a wireless communication system and comprises the step of obtaining, at the network node, information indicative of vehicle traffic in the vicinity of a UE served by the wireless communication system. The method further comprises configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE, in response to said information. The UE may be associated with a UAV, for example, and the information might be, for instance, any one or more of: information indicating a flight path for each one or more UEs; information indicating UE density in a geographical area corresponding to the vicinity of the UE; and information indicating uplink interference caused by one or more EEs.

Variations of these techniques and details of specific adaptations or configuring of the sidelink operations are described below, as are corresponding apparatuses and systems.

Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s). The proposed solutions help achieve a good trade-off between maximizing the utility of UAV communication over PC5 for D/A services and minimizing the energy consumption at the UAVs.

BREF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1 illustrates a scenario where the network is reconfiguring an aerial UE based on its flying altitude.

Figure 2 shows UAS-to-UTM connectivity.

Figure 3 is a process flow diagram illustrating an example method, according to some embodiments.

Figure 4 illustrates an example communication system.

Figure 5 is a block diagram illustrating features of an example UE.

Figure 6 illustrates an example network node.

Figure 7 is a block diagram of a host.

Figure 8 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment.

Figure 9 shows a communication diagram of a host communicating via a network node with a UE over a partially wireless connection.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art.

In this section, the term UE is used to denote the aerial UEs, i.e., the UAVs which are categorized as UEs in cellular networks. The proposed solutions are presented in the context of UEs broadcasting messages for detection and avoidance (D/A), but can be equally applied to other type of use cases such as UEs broadcasting ID-related messages for UE identification.

Please note that in the following it is assumed that flight information of other UEs is already available at the 3GPP network. However, how this flight information is acquired by the 3GPP network is not in scope of this disclosure.

Some solutions below are applicable to both LTE SL and NR SL. Some are applicable to NR SL only.

Three types of methods are disclosed:

- Enabling/disabling the D/A services based on side information about air traffic condition.

- Adapting D/A message transmission rate based on side information about air traffic condition.

Configuring/adapting SL-DRX or partial sensing parameters based on side information about air traffic condition.

The side information can contain at least one of the following or a combination thereof:

- Information about flight path of one or more UEs.

- Information about UE density in a certain geographical area.

- Information about the UL interference level caused by the UEs.

In some embodiments, a network entity, which has the information about the flight path of UEs, determines that two or more UEs are in proximity of one another (could be in the same cell or in different cells) and, in response, sends control information to enable the transmission of D/A messages by the UEs or to increase the frequency of the transmission of D/A messages by the said UEs.

Conversely, in response to determining that two or more UEs are not in proximity of one another, the entity sends control information to disable the transmission of D/A messages by the said UEs or to reduce the frequency of the transmission of D/A messages by the said UEs.

In one example, the network entity is the gNB, the AMF, a new 3GPP CN entity, or a non-3GPP entity/network (e.g., the UTM network). In some embodiments, the gNB sends a configuration to the UE and in this configuration there could be a map of the location on when the D/A should be started or stopped.

Alternatively, the gNB may send a configuration to do D/A to the UE and then it can indicate the UE to start or stop the procedure via RRC, MAC CE or LI signalling (DCI).

In yet another alternative, the configuration sent by the gNB may indicate in which instant of time, according to the flight path of the UE, the D/A should be started or stopped. This can be via RRC, MAC or LI. A difference from the above example is that here MAC or LI signaling would indicate an RRC configured option, e.g., on the timing or on timing and other details of the configuration.

In another embodiment, the UE may receive the configuration sent by the gNB via dedicated RRC signaling, system information, or according to a pre-configuration (i.e., hard-coded in the spec).

In some embodiments, in the eNB/gNB- scheduled SL transmission mode (e.g., Mode-1 in NR SL and Mode-3 in LTE SL), when the eNB/gNB determines that the number of UEs in a certain geographical area (or zone) exceeds a certain threshold, the eNB/gNB grants more or dedicated resources for SL transmissions of at least one of the UEs:

For example, the eNB may configure a new SL SPS grant to the UEs with a shorter time interval between the resources in the grant.

Likewise, the gNB may configure a new SL configured grant to the UEs with a shorter time interval between the resources in the grant.

In another example, the eNB/gNB may configure dynamic SL resources grants more often to the said UEs.

In yet another example, the gNB may configure a separate TX/RX resource pool that should be only used when the UE performs D/A.

Conversely, in response to determining that the number of UEs in a certain geographical area (or zone) falls under a certain threshold, the eNB/gNB may reduce the frequency or the amount of resources granted for SL transmissions by the UEs in the area. If a separate TX/RX resource pool is configured only for D/A transmissions, the UE may switch autonomously to a resource pool for normal sidelink transmission, or the network may reconfigure the UE to not use anymore the resource pool dedicated to only D/A transmissions.

In some embodiments, the eNB/gNB may adjust the frequency or the amount of resources granted for SL transmissions by the UEs in the area, based on the speed of UEs. This has the benefit that if two UEs are flying very fast they need in general lower latency and higher reliability communication for D/A messages, compared to if the UEs fly slowly.

In some embodiments, in response to determining that the number of UEs in a certain geographical area (or zone) falls under a certain threshold, the eNB/gNB may reduce the number of (blind) retransmissions required by the UEs in the area.

In some embodiments, SL-DRX of the UEs in a network or in a geographical area is configured or pre-configured, based on the side information about UAV traffic condition or UEs flight path information (e.g., the higher the UAV traffic in the area, the more often the UEs need to be in DRX Active state and vice versa).

The information about UAV traffic condition can be deduced based on the live information about flight path of the UEs or based historical data of the UAV traffic in the area.

In a sub-embodiment, the SL-DRX (pre-)configuration above includes enabling/disabling the SL-DRX based on the side information about UAV traffic condition or UEs flight path information (e.g., the SL-DRX is enabled when the UAV traffic density is under a certain threshold and is disabled when the UAV traffic density is above a certain threshold.)

In some embodiments, based on UL interference measurements performed at the eNB/gNB, an eNB/gNB or a group of eNBs/gNBs determine that the UE density in a certain geographical area is increasing (or decreasing) and thereby performs at least one of the methods in the embodiments above (i.e., adapting the resource grants, adapting the number of retransmissions, adapting SL-DRX configuration) accordingly.

In other embodiments, the UL interference may be estimated at the eNB(s)/gNB(s) based on reports of the UEs. The geographical area or geographical zone in the above embodiments can be specified in 2-dimensional space (i.e., in terms of X-Y coordinate) or in 3-dimensional space (i.e., in terms of X-Y-Z coordinate.) Different zones can have the same size or different sizes.

Figure 3 illustrates a process flow diagram for a generalized method, as carried out in a network node in or connected to a wireless communication system, for carrying out one or several of the techniques described above. In various embodiments, the network node is serving a user equipment (UE) associated with a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), although it should be appreciated that the specific techniques describe herein may be applied more generally than that. The illustrated method, and the several variations described below, should be understood as encompassing and/or complementing the techniques described above, such that any of the variations described above are applicable to the method of Figure 3, and vice versa. Furthermore, multiple ones of the numerous variations described herein may be implemented in and/or carried out by the same network node, in some embodiments.

As shown at block 310, the method comprises obtaining, at the network node, information indicative of traffic in the vicinity of a user equipment (UE) served by the wireless communication system. This information might, for example, indicate a flight path for each one or more UEs, indicate UE density in a geographical area corresponding to the vicinity of the UE, indicate uplink interference caused by one or more UEs, and/or indicate a speed for one or more UEs. Some or all of the information may be received from a node in an Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) system, for example, and/or some or all of the information may be received from one or more other UEs, in another example. The network node might be, in various embodiments, an eNB serving the UE, a gNB serving the UE, an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) serving the UE, or a node in an UTM system, to provide a few examples.

As shown at block 320, the method further comprises configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE, in response to said information. This may comprise, for example, any one or more of any of: enabling or disabling sidelink transmissions; adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions; adjusting a quantity of resources for sidelink transmissions; and configuring or adapting discontinuous sidelink reception, SL-DRX, and/or sidelink sensing parameters. In some embodiments or instances, for example, the method may comprise configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE by signaling the UE to enable transmission of sidelink transmissions, e.g., for detection and avoidance services, in response to determining, based on the information, that one or more other UEs are in the proximity of the UE. Likewise, the method may comprise configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE by signaling the UE to disable transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that no other UE is in the proximity of the UE. In any of these and other cases, the signaling may indicate a time and/or a location (or locations, e.g., as a defined region) for enabling or disabling transmission of sidelink transmissions. Likewise, the signaling may indicate that the UE is to begin or stop use of a resource pool dedicated to sidelink transmissions.

In other embodiments or instances, for example, the method may comprise adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to increase or decrease a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, e.g., for detection and avoidance services, in response to an evaluation of a number of or density of UEs in the vicinity of the UE with respect to a corresponding threshold. More specifically, this may comprise adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to increase a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that one or more other UEs are in the proximity of the UE. Likewise, this may comprise adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to decrease a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that no other UE is in the proximity of the UE. The signaling in these embodiments or instances may comprise configuring a sidelink semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) grant to the UE, the SPS indicating a different time interval between resources in the grant, relative to a previous SPS grant. Likewise, the signaling may comprise configuring a sidelink configured grant to the UE, the sidelink configured grant having a different time interval between resources in the grant, relative to a previous sidelink configured grant. The signaling may comprise indicating that the UE is to use a different quantity of resources or a different pool of resources dedicated to sidelink transmissions for detection and avoidance services.

In still other embodiments or instances, the method may comprise adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to increase or decrease a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, based at least in part on a speed of the UE and/or a speed of one or more UEs in the vicinity of the UE.

Figure 4 shows an example of a communication system 400 in accordance with some embodiments.

In the example, the communication system 400 includes a telecommunication network 402 that includes an access network 404, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 406, which includes one or more core network nodes 408. The access network 404 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 410a and 410b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 410), or any other similar 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) access node or non-3GPP access point. The network nodes 410 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 412a, 412b, 412c, and 412d (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 412) to the core network 406 over one or more wireless connections.

Example wireless communications over a wireless connection include transmitting and/or receiving wireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infrared waves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying information without the use of wires, cables, or other material conductors. Moreover, in different embodiments, the communication system 400 may include any number of wired or wireless networks, network nodes, UEs, and/or any other components or systems that may facilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signals whether via wired or wireless connections. The communication system 400 may include and/or interface with any type of communication, telecommunication, data, cellular, radio network, and/or other similar type of system.

The UEs 412 may be any of a wide variety of communication devices, including wireless devices arranged, configured, and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with the network nodes 410 and other communication devices. Similarly, the network nodes 410 are arranged, capable, configured, and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with the UEs 412 and/or with other network nodes or equipment in the telecommunication network 402 to enable and/or provide network access, such as wireless network access, and/or to perform other functions, such as administration in the telecommunication network 402. In the depicted example, the core network 406 connects the network nodes 410 to one or more hosts, such as host 416. These connections may be direct or indirect via one or more intermediary networks or devices. In other examples, network nodes may be directly coupled to hosts. The core network 406 includes one more core network nodes (e.g., core network node 408) that are structured with hardware and software components. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the UEs, network nodes, and/or hosts, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of the core network node 408. Example core network nodes include functions of one or more of a Mobile Switching Center (MSC), Mobility Management Entity (MME), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Session Management Function (SMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Subscription Identifier De-concealing function (SIDF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), Network Exposure Function (NEF), and/or a User Plane Function (UPF).

The host 416 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider other than an operator or provider of the access network 404 and/or the telecommunication network 402, and may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.

The host 416 may host a variety of applications to provide one or more service. Examples of such applications include live and pre-recorded audio/video content, data collection services such as retrieving and compiling data on various ambient conditions detected by a plurality of UEs, analytics functionality, social media, functions for controlling or otherwise interacting with remote devices, functions for an alarm and surveillance center, or any other such function performed by a server.

As a whole, the communication system 400 of Figure 4 enables connectivity between the UEs, network nodes, and hosts. In that sense, the communication system may be configured to operate according to predefined rules or procedures, such as specific standards that include, but are not limited to: Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM); Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS); Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G standards, or any applicable future generation standard (e.g., 6G); wireless local area network (WLAN) standards, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards (WiFi); and/or any other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Near Field Communication (NFC) ZigBee, LiFi, and/or any low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) standards such as LoRa and Sigfox.

In some examples, the telecommunication network 402 is a cellular network that implements 3 GPP standardized features. Accordingly, the telecommunications network 402 may support network slicing to provide different logical networks to different devices that are connected to the telecommunication network 402. For example, the telecommunications network 402 may provide Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) services to some UEs, while providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services to other UEs, and/or Massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC)/Massive IoT services to yet further UEs.

In some examples, the UEs 412 are configured to transmit and/or receive information without direct human interaction. For instance, a UE may be designed to transmit information to the access network 404 on a predetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or in response to requests from the access network 404. Additionally, a UE may be configured for operating in single- or multi-RAT or multi standard mode. For example, a UE may operate with any one or combination of Wi-Fi, NR (New Radio) and LTE, i.e. being configured for multi -radio dual connectivity (MR- DC), such as E-UTRAN (Evolved-UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) New Radio - Dual Connectivity (EN-DC).

In the example, the hub 414 communicates with the access network 404 to facilitate indirect communication between one or more UEs (e.g., UE 412c and/or 412d) and network nodes (e.g., network node 410b). In some examples, the hub 414 may be a controller, router, content source and analytics, or any of the other communication devices described herein regarding UEs. For example, the hub 414 may be a broadband router enabling access to the core network 406 for the UEs. As another example, the hub 414 may be a controller that sends commands or instructions to one or more actuators in the UEs. Commands or instructions may be received from the UEs, network nodes 410, or by executable code, script, process, or other instructions in the hub 414. As another example, the hub 414 may be a data collector that acts as temporary storage for UE data and, in some embodiments, may perform analysis or other processing of the data. As another example, the hub 414 may be a content source. For example, for a UE that is a VR headset, display, loudspeaker or other media delivery device, the hub 414 may retrieve VR assets, video, audio, or other media or data related to sensory information via a network node, which the hub 414 then provides to the UE either directly, after performing local processing, and/or after adding additional local content. In still another example, the hub 414 acts as a proxy server or orchestrator for the UEs, in particular in if one or more of the UEs are low energy IoT devices.

The hub 414 may have a constant/persistent or intermittent connection to the network node 410b. The hub 414 may also allow for a different communication scheme and/or schedule between the hub 414 and UEs (e.g., UE 412c and/or 412d), and between the hub 414 and the core network 406. In other examples, the hub 414 is connected to the core network 406 and/or one or more UEs via a wired connection. Moreover, the hub 414 may be configured to connect to an M2M service provider over the access network 404 and/or to another UE over a direct connection. In some scenarios, UEs may establish a wireless connection with the network nodes 410 while still connected via the hub 414 via a wired or wireless connection. In some embodiments, the hub 414 may be a dedicated hub - that is, a hub whose primary function is to route communications to/from the UEs from/to the network node 410b. In other embodiments, the hub 414 may be a non-dedicated hub - that is, a device which is capable of operating to route communications between the UEs and network node 410b, but which is additionally capable of operating as a communication start and/or end point for certain data channels.

Figure 5 shows a UE 500 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, a UE refers to a device capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly with network nodes and/or other UEs. Examples of a UE include, but are not limited to, a smart phone, mobile phone, cell phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phone, wireless local loop phone, desktop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), wireless cameras, gaming console or device, music storage device, playback appliance, wearable terminal device, wireless endpoint, mobile station, tablet, laptop, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), laptop-mounted equipment (LME), smart device, wireless customer-premise equipment (CPE), vehicle-mounted or vehicle embedded/integrated wireless device, etc. Other examples include any UE identified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3 GPP), including a narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT) UE, a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.

A UE may support device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3 GPP standard for sidelink communication, Dedicated Short-Range Communication (DSRC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), or vehicle-to-everything (V2X). In other examples, a UE may not necessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/or operates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which may not, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific human user (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE may represent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, an end user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit of a user (e.g., a smart power meter).

The UE 500 includes processing circuitry 502 that is operatively coupled via a bus 504 to an input/output interface 506, a power source 508, a memory 510, a communication interface 512, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof. Certain UEs may utilize all or a subset of the components shown in Figure 5. The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of a component, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

The processing circuitry 502 is configured to process instructions and data and may be configured to implement any sequential state machine operative to execute instructions stored as machine-readable computer programs in the memory 510. The processing circuitry 502 may be implemented as one or more hardware-implemented state machines (e.g., in discrete logic, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc.); programmable logic together with appropriate firmware; one or more stored computer programs, general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or digital signal processor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combination of the above. For example, the processing circuitry 502 may include multiple central processing units (CPUs).

In the example, the input/output interface 506 may be configured to provide an interface or interfaces to an input device, output device, or one or more input and/or output devices. Examples of an output device include a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, or any combination thereof. An input device may allow a user to capture information into the UE 500. Examples of an input device include a touch-sensitive or presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, a biometric sensor, etc., or any combination thereof. An output device may use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port may be used to provide an input device and an output device.

In some embodiments, the power source 508 is structured as a battery or battery pack.

Other types of power sources, such as an external power source (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic device, or power cell, may be used. The power source 508 may further include power circuitry for delivering power from the power source 508 itself, and/or an external power source, to the various parts of the UE 500 via input circuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Delivering power may be, for example, for charging of the power source 508. Power circuitry may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to the power from the power source 508 to make the power suitable for the respective components of the UE 500 to which power is supplied.

The memory 510 may be or be configured to include memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magnetic disks, optical disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, flash drives, and so forth. In one example, the memory 510 includes one or more application programs 514, such as an operating system, web browser application, a widget, gadget engine, or other application, and corresponding data 516. The memory 510 may store, for use by the UE 500, any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operating systems.

The memory 510 may be configured to include a number of physical drive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive, thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc (HD- DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray optical disc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive, external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), external micro- DIMM SDRAM, smartcard memory such as tamper resistant module in the form of a universal integrated circuit card (UICC) including one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), such as a USIM and/or ISIM, other memory, or any combination thereof. The UICC may for example be an embedded UICC (eUICC), integrated UICC (iUICC) or a removable UICC commonly known as ‘SIM card.’ The memory 510 may allow the UE 500 to access instructions, application programs and the like, stored on transitory or non-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may be tangibly embodied as or in the memory 510, which may be or comprise a device-readable storage medium.

The processing circuitry 502 may be configured to communicate with an access network or other network using the communication interface 512. The communication interface 512 may comprise one or more communication subsystems and may include or be communicatively coupled to an antenna 522. The communication interface 512 may include one or more transceivers used to communicate, such as by communicating with one or more remote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communication (e.g., another UE or a network node in an access network). Each transceiver may include a transmitter 518 and/or a receiver 520 appropriate to provide network communications (e.g., optical, electrical, frequency allocations, and so forth). Moreover, the transmitter 518 and receiver 520 may be coupled to one or more antennas (e.g., antenna 522) and may share circuit components, software or firmware, or alternatively be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, communication functions of the communication interface 512 may include cellular communication, Wi-Fi communication, LPWAN communication, data communication, voice communication, multimedia communication, short-range communications such as Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communication such as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine a location, another like communication function, or any combination thereof. Communications may be implemented in according to one or more communication protocols and/or standards, such as IEEE 802.11, Code Division Multiplexing Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), GSM, LTE, New Radio (NR), UMTS, WiMax, Ethernet, transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), synchronous optical networking (SONET), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), QUIC, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), and so forth.

Regardless of the type of sensor, a UE may provide an output of data captured by its sensors, through its communication interface 512, via a wireless connection to a network node. Data captured by sensors of a UE can be communicated through a wireless connection to a network node via another UE. The output may be periodic (e.g., once every 15 minutes if it reports the sensed temperature), random (e.g., to even out the load from reporting from several sensors), in response to a triggering event (e.g., when moisture is detected an alert is sent), in response to a request (e.g., a user initiated request), or a continuous stream (e.g., a live video feed of a patient).

As another example, a UE comprises an actuator, a motor, or a switch, related to a communication interface configured to receive wireless input from a network node via a wireless connection. In response to the received wireless input the states of the actuator, the motor, or the switch may change. For example, the UE may comprise a motor that adjusts the control surfaces or rotors of a drone in flight according to the received input or to a robotic arm performing a medical procedure according to the received input.

A UE, when in the form of an Internet of Things (IoT) device, may be a device for use in one or more application domains, these domains comprising, but not limited to, city wearable technology, extended industrial application and healthcare. Non-limiting examples of such an IoT device are a device which is or which is embedded in: a connected refrigerator or freezer, a TV, a connected lighting device, an electricity meter, a robot vacuum cleaner, a voice controlled smart speaker, a home security camera, a motion detector, a thermostat, a smoke detector, a door/window sensor, a flood/moisture sensor, an electrical door lock, a connected doorbell, an air conditioning system like a heat pump, an autonomous vehicle, a surveillance system, a weather monitoring device, a vehicle parking monitoring device, an electric vehicle charging station, a smart watch, a fitness tracker, a head-mounted display for Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), a wearable for tactile augmentation or sensory enhancement, a water sprinkler, an animal- or item-tracking device, a sensor for monitoring a plant or animal, an industrial robot, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and any kind of medical device, like a heart rate monitor or a remote controlled surgical robot. A UE in the form of an IoT device comprises circuitry and/or software in dependence of the intended application of the IoT device in addition to other components as described in relation to the UE 500 shown in Figure 5.

As yet another specific example, in an IoT scenario, a UE may represent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/or measurements to another UE and/or a network node. The UE may in this case be an M2M device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the UE may implement the 3GPP NB-IoT standard. In other scenarios, a UE may represent a vehicle, such as a car, a bus, a truck, a ship and an airplane, or other equipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functions associated with its operation.

In practice, any number of UEs may be used together with respect to a single use case. For example, a first UE might be or be integrated in a drone and provide the drone’s speed information (obtained through a speed sensor) to a second UE that is a remote controller operating the drone. When the user makes changes from the remote controller, the first UE may adjust the throttle on the drone (e.g. by controlling an actuator) to increase or decrease the drone’s speed. The first and/or the second UE can also include more than one of the functionalities described above. For example, a UE might comprise the sensor and the actuator, and handle communication of data for both the speed sensor and the actuators.

Figure 6 shows a network node 600 in accordance with some embodiments. As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with a UE and/or with other network nodes or equipment, in a telecommunication network. Examples of network nodes include, but are not limited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), base stations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs (eNBs) and NRNodeBs (gNBs)).

Base stations may be categorized based on the amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, their transmit power level) and so, depending on the provided amount of coverage, may be referred to as femto base stations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro base stations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor node controlling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (or all) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralized digital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to as Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not be integrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of a distributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in a distributed antenna system (DAS).

Other examples of network nodes include multiple transmission point (multi-TRP) 5G access nodes, multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmission nodes, multi- cell/multicast coordination entities (MCEs), Operation and Maintenance (O&M) nodes, Operations Support System (OSS) nodes, Self-Organizing Network (SON) nodes, positioning nodes (e.g., Evolved Serving Mobile Location Centers (E-SMLCs)), and/or Minimization of Drive Tests (MDTs).

The network node 600 includes a processing circuitry 602, a memory 604, a communication interface 606, and a power source 608. The network node 600 may be composed of multiple physically separate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or a BTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their own respective components. In certain scenarios in which the network node 600 comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components), one or more of the separate components may be shared among several network nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeBs. In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in some instances be considered a single separate network node. In some embodiments, the network node 600 may be configured to support multiple radio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some components may be duplicated (e.g., separate memory 604 for different RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., a same antenna 610 may be shared by different RATs). The network node 600 may also include multiple sets of the various illustrated components for different wireless technologies integrated into network node 600, for example GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, Zigbee, Z-wave, LoRaWAN, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or Bluetooth wireless technologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chip or set of chips and other components within network node 600.

The processing circuitry 602 may comprise a combination of one or more of a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, or any other suitable computing device, resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logic operable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other network node 600 components, such as the memory 604, to provide network node 600 functionality.

In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 602 includes a system on a chip (SOC). In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 602 includes one or more of radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 612 and baseband processing circuitry 614. In some embodiments, the radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 612 and the baseband processing circuitry 614 may be on separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 612 and baseband processing circuitry 614 may be on the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units.

The memory 604 may comprise any form of volatile or non-volatile computer-readable memory including, without limitation, persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory, magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removable storage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device-readable and/or computer- executable memory devices that store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used by the processing circuitry 602. The memory 604 may store any suitable instructions, data, or information, including a computer program, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code, tables, and/or other instructions capable of being executed by the processing circuitry 602 and utilized by the network node 600. The memory 604 may be used to store any calculations made by the processing circuitry 602 and/or any data received via the communication interface 606. In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 602 and memory 604 is integrated.

The communication interface 606 is used in wired or wireless communication of signaling and/or data between a network node, access network, and/or UE. As illustrated, the communication interface 606 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 616 to send and receive data, for example to and from a network over a wired connection. The communication interface 606 also includes radio front-end circuitry 618 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, the antenna 610. Radio front-end circuitry 618 comprises filters 620 and amplifiers 622. The radio front-end circuitry 618 may be connected to an antenna 610 and processing circuitry 602. The radio front-end circuitry may be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 610 and processing circuitry 602. The radio front-end circuitry 618 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes or UEs via a wireless connection. The radio front-end circuitry 618 may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 620 and/or amplifiers 622. The radio signal may then be transmitted via the antenna 610. Similarly, when receiving data, the antenna 610 may collect radio signals which are then converted into digital data by the radio front-end circuitry 618. The digital data may be passed to the processing circuitry 602. In other embodiments, the communication interface may comprise different components and/or different combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, the network node 600 does not include separate radio front-end circuitry 618, instead, the processing circuitry 602 includes radio front-end circuitry and is connected to the antenna 610. Similarly, in some embodiments, all or some of the RF transceiver circuitry 612 is part of the communication interface 606. In still other embodiments, the communication interface 606 includes one or more ports or terminals 616, the radio front-end circuitry 618, and the RF transceiver circuitry 612, as part of a radio unit (not shown), and the communication interface 606 communicates with the baseband processing circuitry 614, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

The antenna 610 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays, configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. The antenna 610 may be coupled to the radio front-end circuitry 618 and may be any type of antenna capable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. In certain embodiments, the antenna 610 is separate from the network node 600 and connectable to the network node 600 through an interface or port.

The antenna 610, communication interface 606, and/or the processing circuitry 602 may be configured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtaining operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be received from a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly, the antenna 610, the communication interface 606, and/or the processing circuitry 602 may be configured to perform any transmitting operations described herein as being performed by the network node. Any information, data and/or signals may be transmitted to a UE, another network node and/or any other network equipment.

The power source 608 provides power to the various components of network node 600 in a form suitable for the respective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed for each respective component). The power source 608 may further comprise, or be coupled to, power management circuitry to supply the components of the network node 600 with power for performing the functionality described herein. For example, the network node 600 may be connectable to an external power source (e.g., the power grid, an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface such as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies power to power circuitry of the power source 608. As a further example, the power source 608 may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery pack which is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry. The battery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.

Embodiments of the network node 600 may include additional components beyond those shown in Figure 6 for providing certain aspects of the network node’s functionality, including any of the functionality described herein and/or any functionality necessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example, the network node 600 may include user interface equipment to allow input of information into the network node 600 and to allow output of information from the network node 600. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic, maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for the network node 600.

Figure 7 is a block diagram of a host 700, which may be an embodiment of the host 416 of Figure 4, in accordance with various aspects described herein. As used herein, the host 700 may be or comprise various combinations hardware and/or software, including a standalone server, a blade server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server, a virtual machine, container, or processing resources in a server farm. The host 700 may provide one or more services to one or more UEs.

The host 700 includes processing circuitry 702 that is operatively coupled via a bus 704 to an input/output interface 706, a network interface 708, a power source 710, and a memory 712. Other components may be included in other embodiments. Features of these components may be substantially similar to those described with respect to the devices of previous figures, such as Figures 5 and 6, such that the descriptions thereof are generally applicable to the corresponding components of host 700.

The memory 712 may include one or more computer programs including one or more host application programs 714 and data 716, which may include user data, e.g., data generated by a UE for the host 700 or data generated by the host 700 for a TIE. Embodiments of the host 700 may utilize only a subset or all of the components shown. The host application programs 714 may be implemented in a container-based architecture and may provide support for video codecs (e.g., Versatile Video Coding (VVC), High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), Advanced Video Coding (AVC), MPEG, VP9) and audio codecs (e.g., FLAC, Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), MPEG, G.711), including transcoding for multiple different classes, types, or implementations of UEs (e.g., handsets, desktop computers, wearable display systems, heads-up display systems). The host application programs 714 may also provide for user authentication and licensing checks and may periodically report health, routes, and content availability to a central node, such as a device in or on the edge of a core network. Accordingly, the host 700 may select and/or indicate a different host for over-the-top services for a UE. The host application programs 714 may support various protocols, such as the HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) protocol, Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), etc.

Figure 8 is a block diagram illustrating a virtualization environment 800 in which functions implemented by some embodiments may be virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creating virtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may include virtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networking resources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to any device described herein, or components thereof, and relates to an implementation in which at least a portion of the functionality is implemented as one or more virtual components. Some or all of the functions described herein may be implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtual machines (VMs) implemented in one or more virtual environments 800 hosted by one or more of hardware nodes, such as a hardware computing device that operates as a network node, UE, core network node, or host. Further, in embodiments in which the virtual node does not require radio connectivity (e.g., a core network node or host), then the node may be entirely virtualized.

Applications 802 (which may alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances, network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.) are run in the virtualization environment Q400 to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefits of some of the embodiments disclosed herein.

Hardware 804 includes processing circuitry, memory that stores software and/or instructions executable by hardware processing circuitry, and/or other hardware devices as described herein, such as a network interface, input/output interface, and so forth. Software may be executed by the processing circuitry to instantiate one or more virtualization layers 806 (also referred to as hypervisors or virtual machine monitors (VMMs)), provide VMs 808a and 808b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as VMs 808), and/or perform any of the functions, features and/or benefits described in relation with some embodiments described herein. The virtualization layer 806 may present a virtual operating platform that appears like networking hardware to the VMs 808.

The VMs 808 comprise virtual processing, virtual memory, virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by a corresponding virtualization layer 806. Different embodiments of the instance of a virtual appliance 802 may be implemented on one or more of VMs 808, and the implementations may be made in different ways. Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to as network function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidate many network equipment types onto industry standard high volume server hardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be located in data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, a VM 808 may be a software implementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they were executing on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of the VMs 808, and that part of hardware 804 that executes that VM, be it hardware dedicated to that VM and/or hardware shared by that VM with others of the VMs, forms separate virtual network elements. Still in the context of NFV, a virtual network function is responsible for handling specific network functions that run in one or more VMs 808 on top of the hardware 804 and corresponds to the application 802.

Hardware 804 may be implemented in a standalone network node with generic or specific components. Hardware 804 may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively, hardware 804 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such as in a data center or CPE) where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via management and orchestration 810, which, among others, oversees lifecycle management of applications 802. In some embodiments, hardware 804 is coupled to one or more radio units that each include one or more transmitters and one or more receivers that may be coupled to one or more antennas. Radio units may communicate directly with other hardware nodes via one or more appropriate network interfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or a base station. In some embodiments, some signaling can be provided with the use of a control system 812 which may alternatively be used for communication between hardware nodes and radio units.

Figure 9 shows a communication diagram of a host 902 communicating via a network node 904 with a UE 906 over a partially wireless connection in accordance with some embodiments. Example implementations, in accordance with various embodiments, of the UE (such as a UE 412a of Figure 4 and/or EE 500 of Figure 5), network node (such as network node 410a of Figure 4 and/or network node 600 of Figure 6), and host (such as host 416 of Figure 4 and/or host 700 of Figure 7) discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 9.

Like host 700, embodiments of host 902 include hardware, such as a communication interface, processing circuitry, and memory. The host 902 also includes software, which is stored in or accessible by the host 902 and executable by the processing circuitry. The software includes a host application that may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as the UE 906 connecting via an over-the-top (OTT) connection 950 extending between the UE 906 and host 902. In providing the service to the remote user, a host application may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 950.

The network node 904 includes hardware enabling it to communicate with the host 902 and UE 906. The connection 960 may be direct or pass through a core network (like core network 406 of Figure 4) and/or one or more other intermediate networks, such as one or more public, private, or hosted networks. For example, an intermediate network may be a backbone network or the Internet.

The UE 906 includes hardware and software, which is stored in or accessible by UE 906 and executable by the UE’s processing circuitry. The software includes a client application, such as a web browser or operator-specific “app” that may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via UE 906 with the support of the host 902. In the host 902, an executing host application may communicate with the executing client application via the OTT connection 950 terminating at the UE 906 and host 902. In providing the service to the user, the UE's client application may receive request data from the host's host application and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 950 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The UE's client application may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides to the host application through the OTT connection 950.

The OTT connection 950 may extend via a connection 960 between the host 902 and the network node 904 and via a wireless connection 970 between the network node 904 and the UE 906 to provide the connection between the host 902 and the UE 906. The connection 960 and wireless connection 970, over which the OTT connection 950 may be provided, have been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host 902 and the UE 906 via the network node 904, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices.

As an example of transmitting data via the OTT connection 950, in step 908, the host 902 provides user data, which may be performed by executing a host application. In some embodiments, the user data is associated with a particular human user interacting with the UE 906. In other embodiments, the user data is associated with a UE 906 that shares data with the host 902 without explicit human interaction. In step 910, the host 902 initiates a transmission carrying the user data towards the UE 906. The host 902 may initiate the transmission responsive to a request transmitted by the UE 906. The request may be caused by human interaction with the UE 906 or by operation of the client application executing on the UE 906. The transmission may pass via the network node 904, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. Accordingly, in step 912, the network node 904 transmits to the UE 906 the user data that was carried in the transmission that the host 902 initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In step 914, the UE 906 receives the user data carried in the transmission, which may be performed by a client application executed on the UE 906 associated with the host application executed by the host 902.

In some examples, the UE 906 executes a client application which provides user data to the host 902. The user data may be provided in reaction or response to the data received from the host 902. Accordingly, in step 916, the UE 906 may provide user data, which may be performed by executing the client application. In providing the user data, the client application may further consider user input received from the user via an input/output interface of the UE 906. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE 906 initiates, in step 918, transmission of the user data towards the host 902 via the network node 904. In step 920, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the network node 904 receives user data from the UE 906 and initiates transmission of the received user data towards the host 902. In step 922, the host 902 receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the UE 906.

One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 906 using the OTT connection 950, in which the wireless connection 970 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the power consumption of the UAV, while still maintaining a reasonable degree of responsiveness and avoidance of other aircrafts, thus providing for reliable communications to and through the UAV.

In an example scenario, factory status information may be collected and analyzed by the host 902. As another example, the host 902 may process audio and video data which may have been retrieved from a UE for use in creating maps. As another example, the host 902 may collect and analyze real-time data to assist in controlling vehicle congestion (e.g., controlling traffic lights). As another example, the host 902 may store surveillance video uploaded by a UE. As another example, the host 902 may store or control access to media content such as video, audio, VR or AR which it can broadcast, multicast or unicast to UEs. As other examples, the host 902 may be used for energy pricing, remote control of non-time critical electrical load to balance power generation needs, location services, presentation services (such as compiling diagrams etc. from data collected from remote devices), or any other function of collecting, retrieving, storing, analyzing and/or transmitting data.

In some examples, a measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoring data rate, latency and other factors on which the one or more embodiments improve. There may further be an optional network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 950 between the host 902 and UE 906, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection may be implemented in software and hardware of the host 902 and/or UE 906. In some embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with other devices through which the OTT connection 950 passes; the sensors may participate in the measurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantities exemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities from which software may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 950 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not directly alter the operation of the network node 904. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signaling that facilitates measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like, by the host 902. The measurements may be implemented in that software causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 950 while monitoring propagation times, errors, etc. Although the computing devices described herein (e.g., UEs, network nodes, hosts) may include the illustrated combination of hardware components, other embodiments may comprise computing devices with different combinations of components. It is to be understood that these computing devices may comprise any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein. Determining, calculating, obtaining or similar operations described herein may be performed by processing circuitry, which may process information by, for example, converting the obtained information into other information, comparing the obtained information or converted information to information stored in the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based on the obtained information or converted information, and as a result of said processing making a determination. Moreover, while components are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multiple boxes, in practice, computing devices may comprise multiple different physical components that make up a single illustrated component, and functionality may be partitioned between separate components. For example, a communication interface may be configured to include any of the components described herein, and/or the functionality of the components may be partitioned between the processing circuitry and the communication interface. In another example, non-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may be implemented in software or firmware and computationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein may be provided by processing circuitry executing instructions stored on in memory, which in certain embodiments may be a computer program product in the form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality may be provided by the processing circuitry without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete device-readable storage medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or not, the processing circuitry can be configured to perform the described functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are not limited to the processing circuitry alone or to other components of the computing device, but are enjoyed by the computing device as a whole, and/or by end users and a wireless network generally. EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the techniques, apparatuses, and systems described herein include, but are not limited to, the following examples.

Group A Embodiments

1. A method, in a network node in or connected to a wireless communication system, the method comprising: obtaining, at the network node, information indicative of traffic in the vicinity of a user equipment (LIE) served by the wireless communication system; and configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE, in response to said information.

2. The method of example embodiment 1, wherein the UE is associated with a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).

3. The method of example embodiment 1 or 2, wherein the information is one or more of any of: information indicating a flight path for each one or more UEs; information indicating UE density in a geographical area corresponding to the vicinity of the UE; and information indicating uplink interference caused by one or more UEs.

4. The method of any one of example embodiments 1-3, wherein configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE comprises any one or more of any of: enabling or disabling sidelink transmissions; adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions; adjusting a quantity of resources for sidelink transmissions; and configuring or adapting discontinuous sidelink reception, SL-DRX, and/or sidelink sensing parameters.

5. The method of example embodiment 4, wherein the method comprises configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE by: signaling the UE to enable transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that one or more other UEs are in the proximity of the UE. 6. The method of example embodiment 4, wherein the method comprises configuring or adapting sidelink transmissions and/or receptions by the UE by: signaling the UE to disable transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that no other UE is in the proximity of the UE.

7. The method of example embodiment 5 or 6, wherein said signaling indicates a time and/or a location for enabling or disabling transmission of sidelink transmissions.

8. The method of any one of example embodiments 5-7, wherein said signaling indicates that the UE is to begin or stop use of a resource pool dedicated to sidelink transmissions.

9. The method of example embodiment 4, wherein the method comprises adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to increase or decrease a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to an evaluation of a number of or density of UEs in the vicinity of the UE with respect to a corresponding threshold.

10. The method of example embodiment 9, wherein the method comprises adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by: signaling the UE to increase a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that one or more other UEs are in the proximity of the UE.

11. The method of example embodiment 9, wherein the method comprises adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by: signaling the UE to decrease a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, in response to determining, based on the information, that no other UE is in the proximity of the UE.

12. The method of any one of example embodiments 9-11, wherein said signaling comprises configuring a sidelink semi-persistent scheduling, SPS, grant to the UE, the SPS indicating a different time interval between resources in the grant, relative to a previous SPS grant.

13. The method of any one of example embodiments 9-11, wherein said signaling comprises configuring a sidelink configured grant to the UE, the sidelink configured grant having a different time interval between resources in the grant, relative to a previous sidelink configured grant.

14. The method of any one of example embodiments 9-13, wherein said signaling comprises indicating that the UE is to use a different quantity of resources or a different pool of resources dedicated to sidelink transmissions for detection and avoidance services.

15. The method of example embodiment 4, wherein the method comprises adapting a transmission rate for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to increase or decrease a rate of transmission of sidelink transmissions, based at least in part on a speed of the UE and/or a speed of one or more UEs in the vicinity of the UE.

16. The method of example embodiment 4, wherein the method comprises adapting a quantity of resources for sidelink transmissions by signaling the UE to increase or decrease the quantity of resources for sidelink transmissions, based at least in part on a speed of the UE and/or a speed of one or more UEs in the vicinity of the UE.

17. The method of any one of example embodiments 1-16, wherein the network node is one of: an eNB serving the UE; a gNB serving the UE; an Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF, serving the UE; and a node in an Unmanned Aircraft Systems, UAS, Traffic Management, UTM, system.

18. The method of any one of example embodiments 1-17, wherein the method comprises receiving at least part of the information from a node in an Unmanned Aircraft Systems, UAS, Traffic Management, UTM, system.

19. The method of any one of example embodiments 1-18, wherein the method comprises receiving at least part of the information from one or more other UEs.

20. The method of any of the previous embodiments, further comprising: obtaining user data; and forwarding the user data to a host or a user equipment.

Group B Embodiments

21. A network node, comprising: processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments; power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the processing circuitry.

22. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data to a network node in a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment (UE), the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

23. The host of the previous embodiment, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application that provides the user data; and the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a client application associated with the host application to receive the transmission of user data from the host.

24. A method implemented in a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: providing user data for the UE; and initiating a transmission carrying the user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the network node, wherein the network node performs any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

25. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising, at the network node, transmitting the user data provided by the host for the UE. 26. The method of any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the user data is provided at the host by executing a host application that interacts with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application.

27. A communication system configured to provide an over-the-top service, the communication system comprising: a host comprising: processing circuitry configured to provide user data for a user equipment (UE), the user data being associated with the over-the-top service; and a network interface configured to initiate transmission of the user data toward a cellular network node for transmission to the UE, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to transmit the user data from the host to the UE.

28. The communication system of the previous embodiment, further comprising: the network node; and/or the user equipment.

29. A host configured to operate in a communication system to provide an over-the-top (OTT) service, the host comprising: processing circuitry configured to initiate receipt of user data; and a network interface configured to receive the user data from a network node in a cellular network, the network node having a communication interface and processing circuitry, the processing circuitry of the network node configured to perform any of the operations of any of the Group A embodiments to receive the user data from a user equipment (UE) for the host.

30. The host of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein: the processing circuitry of the host is configured to execute a host application, thereby providing the user data; and the host application is configured to interact with a client application executing on the UE, the client application being associated with the host application. 31. The host of the any of the previous 2 embodiments, wherein the initiating receipt of the user data comprises requesting the user data.

32. A method implemented by a host configured to operate in a communication system that further includes a network node and a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: at the host, initiating receipt of user data from the UE, the user data originating from a transmission which the network node has received from the UE, wherein the network node performs any of the steps of any of the Group A embodiments to receive the user data from the UE for the host.

33. The method of the previous embodiment, further comprising at the network node, transmitting the received user data to the host.

REFERENCES

E M. Mozaffari, X. Lin, and S. Hayes, “Towards 6G with Connected Sky: CTAVs and Beyond,” Online: 2103.01143.pdf (arxiv.org)

ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation Explanation

AMF Access and Mobility Management Function

CN Core network

D/A Detection and avoidance

DCI Downlink control information

DL Downlink

DRX Discontinuous reception

ID Identifier

LI Layer 1 (physical layer)

LTE Long Term Evolution

MAC Medium Access Control

MAC CE MAC control element

MDT Minimization of Drive Tests

NAS Non-Access Stratum

NR New Radio

NW Network ProSe Proximity Services

RRC Radio Resource Control

RSRP Reference signal received power

RSRQ Reference signal received quality RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator RS-SINR Reference signal SINR RX Receive SINR Signal -to-Interference-plus-N oi se Ratio SL Sidelink SON Self-organizing network SPS Semi-persistent scheduling TX Transmit UAV Unmanned aerial vehicle UAS Unmanned aerial system / Unmanned aircraft system UC Use case UE User equipment UL Uplink V2V Vehicle-to-vehicle communication

V2X Vehicle-to-anything communication