System and methods for network management and orchestration for network slicing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10129108-B2
Application number	US-201615242014-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2016
Priority date	Nov 13, 2015
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for implementing virtualized functions in control and data planes for a communications network are described herein. A method for managing a User Equipment (UE) attach request includes instantiating a Global Connection and Mobility Management (G-CMM) function configured to operate across a plurality of network slices in the communications network, determining an appropriate network slice from the plurality of network slices with the G-CMM function, and attaching the UE to the appropriate network slice.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, for execution by an access node (AN) in a mobile network, for attaching a User Equipment (UE) to a network slice, the method comprising:
receiving a UE attach request from the UE;
transmitting towards a slice selection function (SSF), an attach request generated in accordance with the UE attach request received from the UE;
receiving, from the slice selection function, a slice identifier associated with a selected network slice;
initiating a connection setup including a control plane connection, in accordance with the received slice identifier, between the UE and a control plane network function associated with the selected network slice.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the received UE attach request is a request for a connection to a network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the received UE attach request is a request for a connection for a new service.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the attach request generated in accordance with the received UE attach request includes forwarding the attach request towards the SSF.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of transmitting the generated attach request towards the SSF includes transmitting the generated attach request to a Mobility Management (MM) function.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the slice identifier includes receiving an identifier associated with at least one of:
the control plane network function; and
a user plane network function.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the identifier associated with the control plane network function is a group identifier associated with a plurality of control plane network functions.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the identifier associated with a user plane network function is a group identifier associated with a plurality of user plane network functions.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of selecting, in accordance with the received slice identifier, at least one of:
the control plane network function; and
a user plane network function.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the control plane network function is associated with a second network slice different than the selected network slice.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of initiating a connection setup includes initiating the setup of a user plane connection between the UE and a user plane network function associated with the network slice.

12. The method of claim 1 further including transmitting an attach response to the UE in accordance with completion of the connection setup.

13. The method of claim 1 further include the step of selecting, in accordance with the received slice identifier, at least one of:
the control plane network function; and
a user plane network function.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the receiving further comprises the AN:
receiving, a pool of control plane network functions including the control plane network function.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the selecting further comprises the AN:
selecting, in accordance with the received slice identifier, the control plane network function from the pool of control plane network functions.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the slice identifier comprises a Network Slice Instance Identifier (NSI-ID).

17. A network access node (AN) operative to attach a connecting User Equipment (UE) to a network slice comprising:
a network interface for communicating with other nodes connected to a network;
a wireless access interface for communicating with the UE connecting to the network through the AN;
a processor; and
a non-transitory memory for storing instructions that when executed by processor,
the AN operative to:
receive a UE attach request from the UE;
transmit towards a slice selection function (SSF), an attach request generated in accordance with the UE attach request received from the UE;
receive, from the slice selection function, a slice identifier associated with a selected network slice;
initiate a connection setup including a control plane connection, in accordance with the received slice identifier, between the UE and a control plane network function associated with the selected network slice.

18. The AN of claim 17 , wherein the received UE attach request is a request for at least one of:
a. a connection to a network; and,
b. a connection for a new service.

19. The AN of claim 17 further operative to transmit the generated attach request towards the SSF by transmitting the generated attach request to a Mobility Management (MM) function to forward to the SSF.

20. The AN of claim 17 , wherein receiving the slice identifier includes receiving an identifier associated with at least one of:
the control plane network function; and
a user plane network function.

21. The AN of claim 20 , wherein the identifier may comprise a group identifier associated with at least one of:
a plurality of control plane network functions; and
a plurality of user plane network functions.

22. The AN of claim 17 wherein the step of initiating a connection setup further comprises:
initiating the setup of a user plane connection, in accordance with the received slice identifier, between the UE and a user plane network function.

23. The AN of claim 17 , wherein the AN is further operative to transmit an attach response to the UE in accordance with completion of the connection setup.

24. The AN of claim 17 , wherein the receive further comprises the AN operative to:
receive, a pool of control plane network functions including the control plane network function.

25. The AN of claim 24 , wherein the select further comprises the AN operative to:
select, in accordance with the received slice identifier, the control plane network function from the pool of control plane network functions.

26. The AN of claim 17 , wherein the slice identifier comprises a Network Slice Instance Identifier (NSI-ID).

Assignees

• Vrzic Sophie
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Vrzic Sophie

Classifications

• H04W24/08

  Testing, {supervising or monitoring} using real traffic · CPC title

• H04L41/5054 Primary

  Automatic deployment of services triggered by the service manager, e.g. service implementation by automatic configuration of network components · CPC title

• H04L47/805

  QOS or priority aware · CPC title

• H04W24/02

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W76/11

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title