TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments herein relate to a network node and a method performed therein. Furthermore, a computer program and a computer readable storage medium are also provided herein. In particular, embodiments herein relate to handling data communication in a communication network.

BACKGROUND

In a typical communication network, User Equipment (UE), also known as wireless communication devices, mobile stations, Stations (ST A) and/or wireless devices, communicate via a Radio Access Network (RAN) to one or more Core Networks (CNs). The RAN covers a geographical area which is divided into service areas or cell areas, with each service area or cell area being served by a radio network node such as a radio access node e.g., a Wi-Fi access point or a Radio Base Station (RBS), which in some networks may also be denoted, for example, a NodeB, an eNodeB”, or a gNodeB. A cell area is a geographical area where radio coverage is provided by the radio network node. The radio network node communicates over an air interface operating on radio frequencies with the wireless device within range of the radio network node.

A Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a Third Generation (3G) telecommunication network, which evolved from the Second Generation (2G) Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) is essentially a RAN using Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) and/or High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) for UE. In a forum known as the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), telecommunications suppliers propose and agree upon standards for third generation networks and investigate enhanced data rate and radio capacity. In some RANs, e.g. as in UMTS, several radio network nodes may be connected, e.g., by landlines or microwave, to a controller node, such as a Radio Network Controller (RNC) or a Base Station Controller (BSC), which supervises and coordinates various activities of the plural radio network nodes connected thereto. This type of connection is sometimes referred to as a backhaul connection. The RNCs and BSCs are typically connected to one or more CNs. Specifications for the Evolved Packet System (EPS) have been completed within the 3GPP and this work continues in the coming 3GPP releases. The EPS comprises the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), also known as the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) RAN, and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), also known as System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network. E-UTRAN/LTE is a variant of a 3GPP radio access technology wherein the radio network nodes are directly connected to the EPC core network rather than to RNCs. In general, in E-UTRAN/LTE the functions of an RNC are distributed between the radio network nodes, e.g. eNodeBs in LTE, and the core network. As such, the RAN of an EPS has an essentially “flat” architecture comprising radio network nodes which can be connected directly to one or more core networks, i.e. they do not need to be connected to the core via RNCs.

With the emerging 5G technologies such as New Radio (NR), the use of a large number of transmit- and receive-antenna elements is of great interest as it makes it possible to utilize beamforming, such as transmit-side and receive-side beamforming. Transmit-side beamforming means that the transmitter can amplify the transmitted signals in a selected direction or directions, while suppressing the transmitted signals in other directions. Similarly, on the receive-side, a receiver can amplify received signals coming from a selected direction or directions, while suppressing received unwanted signals coming from other directions.

Cloud gaming is one example of a time-critical service. When accepting cloud gaming users, that are given certain guarantees for e.g., in terms of bandwidth and latency levels that are achieved with a certain probability, it may be difficult to know if the guarantees may be given outside the current cell of the user. I.e., it may be difficult to know if the guarantees may be fulfilled even when the user moves within a certain area, especially during handover. In brief, throughput is a term used for how much data can be transferred from the source to its destination within a given time frame, while bandwidth is the term used for the maximum transfer capacity of a network. Supporting time-critical connectivity may require good deployment planning, including margins, and resource reservation for time-critical services.

A resource reservation may relate to a locality. For example, it is useful to know which gNB(s) that should reserve resources for a UE and/or a service. A service should be possible to relate to a service area, which means that there should be resources reserved in a larger area than a cell. But a device is only at a particular position at a certain time. By reserving resources over a service area where a UE may be located, an over-reservation may take place. As an example, if 30 time-critical UE are admitted in a confined area, e.g., a factory or port, with 12 cells that would need reservations, then there is an overreservation by reserving resources per UE in multiple, or even all, cells/gNBs.

Typical use-case examples may include:

• Factory deployments with a mix of stationary machines/robots, stationary sensors, mobile machines/robots and mobile/on-board/temporary wireless sensors; and

• Port deployments with a mix of semi-stationary cranes, mobile transport vehicles, etc.

Admission control is useful for making sure that a UE is not admitted if there are not enough resources available. The Quality-of-Service (QoS) parameter “Allocation and Retention Priority” (ARP), from 5G NR and previous technologies, comprises information about priority level, pre-emption capability and pre-emption vulnerability and is typically used for admission control of Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) traffic. The ARP priority level defines the relative importance of a resource request and may be used to decide whether a new QoS flow should be accepted or needs to be rejected in case of resource limitations. Admission control is typically based on the available resources in the serving cell.

Prescheduling may be used to make resource reservations for time-critical traffic, to shorten the latency by avoiding the request-grant procedure. Pre-scheduling may be performed by the gNB pro-actively sending out multiple UL grants for potential Uplink (UL) transmissions. The standard in LTE and NR Release-15 supports this concept by allowing pre-scheduling of multiple, periodically recurring UL grants. It builds on the Semi- Persistent Scheduling (SPS) concept originally introduced for LTE Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). In NR, such pre-scheduling scheme is called SPS in Downlink (DL), whereas it is called configured grant (CG) Type 1 and Type 2 in the UL.

The NR DL SPS assignment is the same as in LTE, which is a configured assignment provided by the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)/L1 signaling and may also be deactivated/activated.

The NR UL CG has been specified in two variants, CG Type 1 and Type 2. In both variants a gNB pre-allocates resources of the grants, via different signaling, including:

• Time-frequency resources, via Radio Resource Control (RRC) for Type 1 and Downlink Control Information (DCI) for Type 2;

• Period, via RRC, offset, via RRC for Type 1 and implicitly at DCI reception for Type 2; • Modulation Coding Scheme (MCS), power parameters, via RRC for Type 1 and DCI for Type 2;

• Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), repetitions, via RRC for Type 1 and DCI for Type 2;

• Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) configuration, via RRC; and

• Activate/Deactivate message, via DCI for Type 2, using Configured Scheduling (CS)- Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RNTI).

Both configured grants Type 1 and Type 2 share several commonalities, such as:

• Retransmission for both Type 1 and Type 2 are based only on dynamic grant to CS RNTI, i.e. retransmissions are not sent using the periodically recurring UL grants;

• The dynamic grant with C-RNTI overrides a configured grant for initial transmission in case of overlap in time domain, and both grants have the same Medium Access Control (MAC) priority; and

• There is at most one active Type 1 or Type 2 configuration per serving cell and BWP.

One main difference between Type 1 and Type 2 is the setup procedure. Since Type 1 CG is activated via RRC signaling, it may be best suited for traffic with deterministic arrival periodicity, one of the Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) characteristics. On the other hand, Type 2 CG is suited to support streams with uncertain misalignment, where the grant may be reconfigured quickly with a DCI, Physical (PHY) signal.

The main disadvantage of a configured grant is the potential for low utilization of granted resources when used to serve unpredictable yet critical traffic. This occurs because the gNB may allocate resources without knowing if traffic will be available or not for any given CG based transmission opportunity.

SUMMARY

An object of embodiments herein is to provide a mechanism for handling data communication in a communication network in an efficient manner.

According to an aspect of embodiments herein the object may be achieved by a method performed by a network node for handling data communication in a communication network. The network node collects data associated to an area in the communication network. The data comprises statistics of one or more UE within the area. The network node further determines a map of the area indicating the collected data. The network node further determines a resource reservation for the one or more UE in the area, based on the map.

According to another aspect of embodiments herein, the object is achieved by providing a network node for handling data communication in a communication network. The network node is configured to collect data associated to an area in the communication network. The data comprises statistics of one or more user equipment UE within the area. The network node is further configured to determine a map of the area indicating the collected data. The network node is further configured to determine a resource reservation for the one or more UE in the area, based on the map.

It is furthermore provided herein a computer program comprising instructions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method above, as performed by the network node. It is additionally provided herein a computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the method above, as performed by the network node.

Embodiments herein are based on the realisation that it would be useful to have knowledge of a situation in a certain area to decide what resource reservation that may be offered for a UE in the certain area. Accordingly, by collecting data of one or more UE in an area, a map can be created. The map is then used to determine resource reservation for the one or more UE. Thereby the communication of the UE in the communication network is handled in an efficient manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will now be described in more detail in relation to the enclosed drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic overview depicting a communication network according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 2 is a schematic overview illustrating an example of handling communication in a communication network, according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 3 is a flowchart depicting a method performed by a network node according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 4 is a block diagram depicting a network node according to embodiments herein;

Fig. 5 schematically illustrates a telecommunication network connected via an intermediate network to a host computer; Fig. 6 is a generalized block diagram of a host computer communicating via a base station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection; and

Figs. 7 to 10 are flowcharts illustrating methods implemented in a communication system including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments herein relate to communication networks in general. Fig. 1 is a schematic overview depicting a communication network 1. The communication network 1 comprises one or more RANs connected to one or more CNs. The communication network 1 may use a number of different technologies, such as Wi-Fi, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, 5G, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Global System for Mobile communications/Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (GSM/EDGE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), just to mention a few possible implementations. Embodiments herein relate to recent technology trends that are of particular interest in a 5G context, however, embodiments are applicable also in further development of the existing communication systems such as e.g. a WCDMA and or LTE system.

In the wireless communication network 1 , wireless devices e.g. a UE 10 such as a mobile station, a non-Access Point (non-AP) Station (STA), a STA, and/or a wireless terminal, communicate via one or more Access Networks (AN), e.g. RAN, to one or more CNs. It should be understood by the skilled in the art that “UE” is a non-limiting term which means any terminal, wireless communication terminal, user equipment, Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, Device to Device (D2D) terminal, Internet of Things (loT) operable device, or node e.g. smart phone, laptop, mobile phone, sensor, relay, mobile tablets or even a small base station capable of communicating using radio communication with a network node within an area served by the network node.

The communication network 1 comprises a network node 12, e.g. a radio network node, providing e.g. radio coverage over a geographical area, a service area 15, e.g. one or more cells, of a radio access technology (RAT), such as NR, LTE, Wi-Fi, WiMAX or similar. The network node 12 may be a transmission and reception point, a computational server, a base station e.g. a network node such as a satellite, a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access point or an Access Point Station (AP STA), an access node, an access controller, a radio base station such as a NodeB, an evolved Node B (eNB, eNodeB), a gNodeB (gNB), a base transceiver station, a baseband unit, an Access Point Base Station, a base station router, a transmission arrangement of a radio base station, a stand-alone access point or any other network unit or node depending e.g. on the radio access technology and terminology used. The network node 12 may alternatively or additionally be a controller node or a packet processing node or similar. The network node 12 may be referred to as source node, source access node or a serving network node and the network node 12 communicates with the UE 10 in form of DL transmissions to the UE 10 and UL transmissions from the UE 10. The network node 12 may be a target node. The network node 12 may be a distributed node comprising a baseband unit and one or more remote radio units.

The method according to embodiments herein may be performed by the network node 12. As an alternative, a Distributed Node (DN) and functionality, e.g. comprised in a cloud 40 as shown in Fig. 1 may be used for performing or partly performing the methods.

According to embodiments herein the network node 12 collects data associated to the area 15 in the communication network 1, wherein the data comprises statistics of one or more user UE 10 within the area 15. The network node 12 further determines a map of the area 15 indicating the collected data and then determines a resource reservation for the one or more UE 10 in the area 15, based on the map.

An advantage that may be achieved with the embodiments herein is that certain guarantees for e.g. throughput and/or latency may be fulfilled even when the UE 10 moves within a certain area, e.g. area 15. Another advantage of embodiments herein is ensuring that time-critical services may get the resources they need. Yet another advantage of embodiments herein is improved resource utilization, if over-reservation of resources, e.g., UL configured grants or DL SPS can be avoided or reduced.

An example scenario of handling data communication in the communication network 1 , according to embodiments herein, will now be described with reference to Fig. 2.

Action 201. The network node 12 operates in the communication network 1. To enable the network node 12 have an overview of what the communication situation is like in the area 15 in the communication network 1 , statistics tagged to the area 15 needs to be gathered. The area 15 may be a service area and may comprise one or more cells, preferably two or more cells. Therefore the network node 12 first collects data associated to the area 15 in the communication network 1. The data comprises statistics of one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may come with a location tag of some sort. This may be on a coarse level, e.g. which cell it is currently connected to, or similar but refined, e.g. based on beam selection. It may be based on a positioning service of some kind, e.g. GNSS, cellular-based, based on Wi-Fi positioning, etc., which may provide a more accurate location estimate. These location tags may be useful to have to be able to build a map using the statistics. The statistics may be information about a network throughput, a network load and a latency value of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may also be load on cell level in the different cells in the area 15. Load, when used herein, may be defined as resource utilization in terms of the percentage of the available resource blocks that are used. The statistics may further comprise tracking a movement of the one or more UE 10. Moreover, the statistics may comprise information of performed handover of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may further be collected based on a time of the day. To understand where the one or more UE 10 are located in the area 15, the statistics may be based on beam selection. Furthermore, the statistics may comprise prediction of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at a future time. This may allow the resource reservation and admission control to be based on predicted values for the KPIs where statistics is collected. The statistics may also be used to establish if the one or more UE 10 are in the area 15 at the same time and also where in the area the one or more UE are located. This collected information may be useful when determining the map of the area 15.

Action 202. The collected data is then used to build the map of the area 15. The map thus indicates the collected data. The map of the area 15 is advantageous to have as it may enable the network node 12 to know a probability of what level of guarantees that may be provided to the one or more UE 10 in the area 15. The level of guarantee may for example be to deliver X bytes large packets, sent every Y millisecond (ms), within Z ms, with a probability of 99.9%. The probability may be performed by applying analytics by using e.g. a Machine Learning (ML) model and/or an Artificial Intelligence (Al) model. The map may comprise a probability of a current location and a future location of the one or more UE 10. The collected statistics may come with a location tag, which means that the statistics may be put into a map. The map does not need to have many similarities with a typical map. For example, the map may be a list of historical probabilities that the UE 10 resides in each of the cells in the area 15. As mentioned above, the statistics, e.g. observations, may come with some sort of location tag, e.g. cell-ID, cell-ID + beam selection, cellular-based positioning, GNSS, etc. This type of information may be useful to make the map of the statistics.

Action 203. When the map has been determined it can be used by the network node 12 to determine a resource reservation for the one or more UE 10 in the area 15. Resource reservation when used herein may be defined as providing resources to be allocated in the area 15 for the one or more UE 10. The mobility of the UE 10 is taken into account in the resource reservation. If the UE is in one cell, resources in neighboring cells that the UE 10 may move into may be reserved, to make sure that there are resources available to achieve the desired levels of guarantees also during mobility. The resource reservation may comprise admission control. The admission control when used herein may be defined as deciding whether or not to let in traffic in the area 15, i.e. give admission to the one or more UE 10 in the area 15. This decision is based on the map. The difference compared to “basic” admission control is that instead of just considering if the current cell can admit a new UE 10, also the network load and the possibility to achieve the desired levels of guarantees also in the other cells in area 15 that the UE 10 is likely to move into may be considered. The resource reservation may also comprise a probability of the level of guarantee that may be provided to the one or more UE 10 in the area 15. The resource reservation may be determined using the Al model and/or the ML model.

The method actions performed by the network node 12 for handling data communication in the communication network 1 , according to embodiments herein, will now be described with reference to a flowchart depicted in Fig. 3. The actions do not have to be taken in the order stated below but may be taken in any suitable order.

Action 301. The network node 12 collects data associated to the area 15 in the communication network 1 , wherein the data comprises statistics of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may comprise one or more of: a network throughput value, a network load value and a latency value of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may comprise information of performed handover of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The area 15 may be a service area that offers time-critical services to the one or more UE 10 located in the area 15. The area 15 may comprise one or more cells in the communication network. The statistics may be based on a time parameter, wherein the time parameter may comprise a time of the day. The statistics may be based on beam selection. The statistics may comprise tracking a movement of the one or more UE 10. The statistics may comprise predicted KPIs, and wherein the resource reservation may be based on the predicted KPIs.

Action 302. According to some embodiments, the network node 12 may determine an indication of how many of the one or more UE 10 that are estimated to be in a sub-area of the area 15 at the same time, based on the collected data, and wherein determining the map of the area 15 may further be based on the determined indication. The sub-area may e.g. be a cell.

Action 303. The network node 12 determines the map of the area 15 indicating the collected data. The map may comprise the probability of a current location and a future location of the one or more UE 10.

Action 304. The network node 12 then determines the resource reservation for the one or more UE 10 in the area 15, based on the map. The resource reservation may comprise an admission control to the one or more UE 10 in the area 15, and/or a probability of a level of guarantee provided to the one or more UE 10 in the area 15. The resource reservation may be determined using a machine learning model.

An advantage of embodiments herein is that information of a situation in a certain area, i.e. the area 15, is known. This knowledge is useful when handling the traffic in the communication network. I.e. it is beneficial to know the map of the area 15. The map is used when determining resource reservation. Another advantage of embodiments herein is better, e.g. improved, resource reservation. If no knowledge of the UE 10 and their locations over time is known they may need to be considered to be present in the entire area 15, e.g. a factory floor. This may lead to that resources may need to be reserved also in cells where the UE 10 will never appear. And this may happen for all UE 10 in the entire area 15, e.g. all cells. Embodiments herein may thus enable the resource allocation/reservation to be based on the UE 10 that are relevant, e.g. based on expected positions, for the sub-area/cell where resource reservations are made.

Embodiments herein such as mentioned above will now be further described and exemplified. The text below is applicable to and may be combined with any suitable embodiment described above. Embodiments herein are based on the realization that a centralized knowledge of the level of guarantees that may be offered in a certain area, e.g. area 15, would be useful. According to an example scenario, statistics, e.g. throughput and latency, of one or more UE 10 tagged with position is collected to build up a map over these statistics, e.g. KPIs, covering the geographical area of interest, i.e. area 15. The map may contain statistics both with and without handovers.

According to some embodiments, general communication status may be traced. The general communication status may be e.g., network load and/or utilization in UL and/or DL of the network in different cells, and traffic mix. Network load often follows the time of the day. Therefore, according to some embodiments, statistics of throughput and latency at certain positions may be collected also with time of the day as one dimension. To simplify, time of the day, or network load, may be divided into a few groups corresponding to e.g. high, medium or low load.

According to some embodiments, in addition to statistics, analytics such as Al and/or ML may be applied to enhance the outcome, e.g. for determining the resource reservation for the one or more UE 10 in the area 15, by providing predictions on the possible guarantees. The possible guarantees may be area-based or time-based for the area 15.

Embodiments herein builds on already existing solutions for admission control and resource reservations. To ensure that time-critical services get the resources they need the most straight-forward solution may be to consider admission control and resource reservations over a larger area, e.g. service area, instead of only focusing on admission control and resource allocation in the serving cell. However, this may lead to overreservations and the risk of not admitting users using other services. Resource reservations, which may comprise admission control, may be adapted to location probabilities of the one or more UE 10 using time-critical services. If the location probability of the UE 10 is known, the resource reservation may be adapted to these probabilities. E.g., over longer time the movement of the UE 10 may be tracked and the probability of how many of the critical UE are in the same area at the same time may be assessed. Furthermore, some UE 10 for time-critical industry applications may have static or semi-static positions. E.g., the UE 10 mounted on a large stationary machine, or the UE 10 only communicating when a machine is in a certain pre-defined location.

Assuming that 30 UE running time-critical services are admitted to a service area, e.g. a non-public network in a factory. One solution to ensure that the time-critical services get the required resources also during mobility may be to reserve resources for these UE 10 in each of the cells in the non-public network. However, this may result in significant over-reservation and low resource utilization as each UE 10 may only be in one cell at a time. If there is a 99% probability that only 16 UE may be in the same cell at the same time, then the over-reservation of resources, e.g. UL configured grants or DL SPS, may be reduced, by e.g. only reserving resources for 20 (16 plus some margin) UE in this particular cell.

Similarly, mobility patterns and handover statistics may be collected to understand the probability of current and future locations of the one or more UE 10.

Additional, e.g. limiting, information may be used to determine in which cells the UE 10 may be expected to be. E.g. a crane in a port may only move in certain locations and probably the relevant cells for this crane may be defined without long-term measurements. This may reduce the time used for collection of statistics or for the machine learning.

Resource reservation may further be based on probability of certain beam selection, e.g. for indoor high-band deployments on high-band spectrum, with good angular resolution. Similar to previous embodiments, UE 10 may be mobile, static or semi-static.

Admission and resource reservation may be made provisionally, temporary and/or conditionally, in order to collect statistics of movements before granting a UE nonprovisional admission. This may be a possibility in situations where some sub-areas of the area 15 are capacity limited while others are not.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram depicting the network node 12 for handling data communication in the communication network 1 , according to embodiments herein.

The network node 12 may comprise processing circuitry 401 , e.g. one or more processors, configured to perform the methods herein.

The network node 12 may comprise a collecting unit 402. The network node 12, the processing circuitry 401, and/or the collecting unit 402 is configured to collect data associated to the area 15 in the communication network 1 , wherein the data comprises statistics of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may comprise one or more of: the network throughput value, the network load value and the latency value of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may comprise information of performed handover of the one or more UE 10 within the area 15. The statistics may be based on the time parameter. The time parameter may comprise the time of the day. The statistics may be based on beam selection. The statistics may comprise tracking the movement of the one or more UE 10. The statistics may comprise predicted KPIs, and wherein the resource reservation may be based on the predicted KPIs. The area 15 may be a service area that offers time-critical services to the one or more UE 10 located in the area 15. The area 15 may comprise one or more cells in the communication network.

The network node 12 may comprise a determining unit 403. The network node 12, the processing circuitry 401, and/or the determining unit 403 is configured to determine the map of the area 15 indicating the collected data. The map may comprise the probability of the current location and the future location of the one or more UE 10.

The network node 12, the processing circuitry 401, and/or the determining unit 403 is configured to determine the resource reservation for the one or more UE 10 in the area 15, based on the map. The resource reservation may comprise the admission control of the one or more UE 10 in the area 15, and/or the probability of the level of guarantee of the one or more UE 10 in the area 15. The resource reservation may be determined using the machine learning model.

The network node 12, the processing circuitry 401, and/or the determining unit 403 may be configured to determine the indication of how many of the one or more UE 10 that are estimated to be in the sub-area of the area 15 at the same time, based on the collected data. The map of the area 15 may further be based on the determined indication.

The network node 12 further comprises a memory 404. The memory 404 comprises one or more units to be used to store data on, such as collected data, statistics, network throughput information, network load information, latency information, handover information, , input/output data, metadata, etc. and applications to perform the method disclosed herein when being executed, and similar. The network node 12 may further comprise a communication interface 405 comprising e.g. a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver and/or one or more antenna or antenna elements.

The method according to the embodiments described herein for the network node 12 is implemented by means of e.g. a computer program product 406 or a computer program, comprising instructions, i.e. , software code portions, which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the network node 12. The computer program product 306 may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium 407, e.g. a disc, a universal serial bus (USB) stick or similar. The computer-readable storage medium 407, having stored thereon the computer program product, may comprise the instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out the actions described herein, as performed by the network node 12. In some embodiments, the computer-readable storage medium may be a transitory or a non-transitory computer- readable storage medium.

In some embodiments the general term “network node” is used and it can correspond to any type of radio-network node or any network node, which communicates with a wireless device and/or with another network node. Examples of network nodes are gNodeB, eNodeB, NodeB, MeNB, SeNB, a network node belonging to Master cell group (MCG) or Secondary cell group (SCG), base station (BS), multistandard radio (MSR) radio node such as MSR BS, eNodeB, network controller, radionetwork controller (RNC), base station controller (BSC), relay, donor node controlling relay, base transceiver station (BTS), access point (AP), transmission points, transmission nodes, Remote radio Unit (RRU), Remote Radio Head (RRH), nodes in distributed antenna system (DAS), etc.

In some embodiments the non-limiting term wireless device or UE is used and it refers to any type of wireless device communicating with a network node and/or with another wireless device in a cellular or mobile communication system. Examples of UE are target device, device to device (D2D) UE, proximity capable UE (aka ProSe UE), machine type UE or UE capable of machine to machine (M2M) communication, Tablet, mobile terminals, smart phone, laptop embedded equipped (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB dongles etc.

Embodiments are applicable to any RAT or multi-RAT systems, where the devices receives and/or transmit signals, e.g. data, such as NR, Wi-Fi, LTE, LTE- Advanced, WCDMA, Global System for Mobile communications/enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution (GSM/EDGE), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), or Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), just to mention a few possible implementations.

As will be readily understood by those familiar with communications design, that functions means or circuits may be implemented using digital logic and/or one or more microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other digital hardware. In some embodiments, several or all of the various functions may be implemented together, such as in a single application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or in two or more separate devices with appropriate hardware and/or software interfaces between them. Several of the functions may be implemented on a processor shared with other functional components of a UE or network node, for example.

Alternatively, several of the functional elements of the processing units discussed may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware, while others are provided with hardware for executing software, in association with the appropriate software or firmware. Thus, the term “processor” or “controller” as used herein does not exclusively refer to hardware capable of executing software and may implicitly include, without limitation, digital signal processor (DSP) hardware and/or program or application data. Other hardware, conventional and/or custom, may also be included. Designers of communications devices will appreciate the cost, performance, and maintenance trade-offs inherent in these design choices.

Any appropriate steps, methods, features, functions, or benefits disclosed herein may be performed through one or more functional units or modules of one or more virtual apparatuses. Each virtual apparatus may comprise a number of these functional units. These functional units may be implemented via processing circuitry, which may include one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digital hardware, which may include DSPs, special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitry may be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which may include one or several types of memory such as Read-Only Memory (ROM), Random-Access Memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory devices, optical storage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes program instructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or data communications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one or more of the techniques described herein. In some implementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause the respective functional unit to perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

With reference to Figure 5, in accordance with an embodiment, a communication system includes a telecommunication network 3210 such as the wireless communications network 100, e.g. a NR network, such as a 3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises an access network 3211 , such as a radio access network, and a core network 3214. The access network 3211 comprises a plurality of base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c, such as the radio network node 110, access nodes, AP STAs NBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defining a corresponding coverage area 3213a, 3213b, 3213c. Each base station 3212a, 3212b, 3212c is connectable to the core network 3214 over a wired or wireless connection 3215. A first user equipment (UE) e.g. the wireless devices 120 such as a Non-AP STA 3291 located in coverage area 3213c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, the corresponding base station 3212c. A second UE 3292 e.g. the first or second radio node 110, 120 or such as a Non-AP STA in coverage area 3213a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 3212a. While a plurality of UEs 3291 , 3292 are illustrated in this example, the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where a sole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to the corresponding base station 3212.

The telecommunication network 3210 is itself connected to a host computer 3230, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of a standalone server, a cloud- implemented server, a distributed server or as processing resources in a server farm. The host computer 3230 may be under the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operated by the service provider or on behalf of the service provider. The connections 3221, 3222 between the telecommunication network 3210 and the host computer 3230 may extend directly from the core network 3214 to the host computer 3230 or may go via an optional intermediate network 3220. The intermediate network 3220 may be one of, or a combination of more than one of, a public, private or hosted network; the intermediate network 3220, if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular, the intermediate network 3220 may comprise two or more sub-networks (not shown).

The communication system of Figure 5 as a whole enables connectivity between one of the connected UEs 3291 , 3292 and the host computer 3230. The connectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 3250. The host computer 3230 and the connected UEs 3291 , 3292 are configured to communicate data and/or signalling via the OTT connection 3250, using the access network 3211 , the core network 3214, any intermediate network 3220 and possible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. The OTT connection 3250 may be transparent in the sense that the participating communication devices through which the OTT connection 3250 passes are unaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example, a base station 3212 may not or need not be informed about the past routing of an incoming downlink communication with data originating from a host computer 3230 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE 3291. Similarly, the base station 3212 need not be aware of the future routing of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 3291 towards the host computer 3230.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE, base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphs will now be described with reference to Figure 6. In a communication system 3300, a host computer 3310 comprises hardware 3315 including a communication interface 3316 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300. The host computer 3310 further comprises processing circuitry 3318, which may have storage and/or processing capabilities. In particular, the processing circuitry 3318 may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The host computer 3310 further comprises software 3311 , which is stored in or accessible by the host computer 3310 and executable by the processing circuitry 3318. The software 3311 includes a host application 3312. The host application 3312 may be operable to provide a service to a remote user, such as a UE 3330 connecting via an OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the remote user, the host application 3312 may provide user data which is transmitted using the OTT connection 3350.

The communication system 3300 further includes a base station 3320 provided in a telecommunication system and comprising hardware 3325 enabling it to communicate with the host computer 3310 and with the UE 3330. The hardware 3325 may include a communication interface 3326 for setting up and maintaining a wired or wireless connection with an interface of a different communication device of the communication system 3300, as well as a radio interface 3327 for setting up and maintaining at least a wireless connection 3370 with a UE 3330 located in a coverage area (not shown in Figure 12) served by the base station 3320. The communication interface 3326 may be configured to facilitate a connection 3360 to the host computer 3310. The connection 3360 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (not shown in Figure 12) of the telecommunication system and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, the hardware 3325 of the base station 3320 further includes processing circuitry 3328, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The base station 3320 further has software 3321 stored internally or accessible via an external connection.

The communication system 3300 further includes the UE 3330 already referred to. Its hardware 3335 may include a radio interface 3337 configured to set up and maintain a wireless connection 3370 with a base station serving a coverage area in which the UE 3330 is currently located. The hardware 3335 of the UE 3330 further includes processing circuitry 3338, which may comprise one or more programmable processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. The UE 3330 further comprises software 3331, which is stored in or accessible by the UE 3330 and executable by the processing circuitry 3338. The software 3331 includes a client application 3332. The client application 3332 may be operable to provide a service to a human or non-human user via the UE 3330, with the support of the host computer 3310. In the host computer 3310, an executing host application 3312 may communicate with the executing client application 3332 via the OTT connection 3350 terminating at the UE 3330 and the host computer 3310. In providing the service to the user, the client application 3332 may receive request data from the host application 3312 and provide user data in response to the request data. The OTT connection 3350 may transfer both the request data and the user data. The client application 3332 may interact with the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that the host computer 3310, base station 3320 and UE 3330 illustrated in Figure 6 may be identical to the host computer 3230, one of the base stations 3212a, 3212b, 3212c and one of the UEs 3291 , 3292 of Figure 5, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings of these entities may be as shown in Figure 6 and independently, the surrounding network topology may be that of Figure 5.

In Figure 6, the OTT connection 3350 has been drawn abstractly to illustrate the communication between the host computer 3310 and the use equipment 3330 via the base station 3320, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices and the precise routing of messages via these devices. Network infrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured to hide from the UE 3330 or from the service provider operating the host computer 3310, or both. While the OTT connection 3350 is active, the network infrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamically changes the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing consideration or reconfiguration of the network).

The wireless connection 3370 between the UE 3330 and the base station 3320 is in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve the performance of OTT services provided to the UE 3330 using the OTT connection 3350, in which the wireless connection 3370 forms the last segment. More precisely, the teachings of these embodiments may decrease the handover latency and thereby improve the communication in the communication network for the UE. This may also lead to extended battery lifetime of the UE.

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 3350 between the host computer 3310 and UE 3330, in response to variations in the measurement results. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality for reconfiguring the OTT connection 3350 may be implemented in the software 3311 of the host computer 3310 or in the software 3331 of the UE 3330, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may be deployed in or in association with communication devices through which the OTT connection 3350 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 3311, 3331 may compute or estimate the monitored quantities. The reconfiguring of the OTT connection 3350 may include message format, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; the reconfiguring need not affect the base station 3320, and it may be unknown or imperceptible to the base station 3320. Such procedures and functionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certain embodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signalling facilitating the host computer’s 3310 measurements of throughput, propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may be implemented in that the software 3311, 3331 causes messages to be transmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using the OTT connection 3350 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

Figure 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 5 and Figure 6. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 7 will be included in this section. In a first action 3410 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional subaction 3411 of the first action 3410, the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In a second action 3420, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. In an optional third action 3430, the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried in the transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In an optional fourth action 3440, the UE executes a client application associated with the host application executed by the host computer.

Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 5 and Figure 6. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 8 will be included in this section. In a first action 3510 of the method, the host computer provides user data. In an optional subaction (not shown) the host computer provides the user data by executing a host application. In a second action 3520, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user data to the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure. In an optional third action 3530, the UE receives the user data carried in the transmission. Figure 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 5 and Figure 6. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 9 will be included in this section. In an optional first action 3610 of the method, the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionally or alternatively, in an optional second action 3620, the UE provides user data. In an optional subaction 3621 of the second action 3620, the UE provides the user data by executing a client application. In a further optional subaction 3611 of the first action 3610, the UE executes a client application which provides the user data in reaction to the received input data provided by the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed client application may further consider user input received from the user. Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided, the UE initiates, in an optional third subaction 3630, transmission of the user data to the host computer. In a fourth action 3640 of the method, the host computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.

Figure 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in a communication system, in accordance with one embodiment. The communication system includes a host computer, a base station such as an AP STA, and a UE such as a Non-AP STA which may be those described with reference to Figure 5 and Figure 6. For simplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to Figure 10 will be included in this section. In an optional first action 3710 of the method, in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. In an optional second action 3720, the base station initiates transmission of the received user data to the host computer. In a third action 3730, the host computer receives the user data carried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

When using the word "comprise" or “comprising” it shall be interpreted as nonlimiting, i.e. meaning "consist at least of".

The embodiments herein are not limited to the above described preferred embodiments. Various alternatives, modifications and equivalents may be used.