Systems and methods for distributing network resources to network service providers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10862818-B2
Application number	US-201615259470-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 8, 2016
Priority date	Sep 23, 2015
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

there is provided a method of generating a soft schedule for the transmission of data to a User Equipment. The method includes receiving traffic to be scheduled for transmission and generating a soft schedule for the transmission of the received data in accordance with a resource allocation and the received traffic. The method further includes transmitting the soft schedule to a scheduler in an underlying network slice, for transmission to the UE. There is also provided a scheduler including a processor and machine readable memory storing machine executable instructions which when executed by the processor configures the scheduler perform the above method.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method, comprising:
receiving traffic to be scheduled for transmission to a user equipment (UE);
generating a soft schedule for the transmission of the received traffic in accordance with a resource allocation received from an underlying network and the received traffic, wherein the resource allocation is determined based on resource guarantees, resource usage information and the minimum resources required by a supported network slice over next operational period, the supported network slice comprising a soft slice, the soft slice having flexibility in receipt of the resource allocation; and
transmitting the soft schedule to a scheduler in the underlying network, for transmission to the UE, wherein transmitting the soft schedule to the scheduler in the underlying network includes transmitting the traffic identified in the soft schedule to an entity in the underlying network.

2. The method of claim 1 further including buffering a portion of the received traffic in accordance with an indication that the portion cannot be scheduled for transmission in a current transmission window.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the soft schedule is generated in accordance with traffic demands associated with a buffered portion of traffic received in a previous transmission window.

4. The method of claim 1 further including transmitting an indication of an updated resource allocation to a scheduler in a supported network slice in accordance with the buffered traffic.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource allocation is associated with a network slice.

6. The method of claim 1 further including storing traffic associated with the soft schedule.

7. The method of claim 6 further including receiving an indication of oversubscription from the scheduler in the underlying network.

8. The method of claim 7 further including flushing a portion of the stored traffic associated with the soft schedule in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the soft schedule is generated in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the soft schedule is generated in accordance with an updated resource allocation received from a resource allocator in the underlying network.

11. A scheduler comprising:
a processor; and
machine readable memory storing machine executable instructions which when executed by the processor configures the scheduler to:
receive traffic to be scheduled for transmission to a user equipment (UE);
generate a soft schedule for the transmission of the received traffic in accordance with a resource allocation received from an underlying network and the received traffic, wherein the resource allocation is determined based on resource guarantees, resource usage information and the minimum resources required by a supported network slice over next operational period, the supported network slice comprising a soft slice, the soft slice having flexibility in receipt of the resource allocation; and
transmit the soft schedule to a scheduler in the underlying network, for transmission to the UE, wherein the machine executable instructions configures the scheduler to transmit the soft schedule to the scheduler in the underlying network includes instructions for transmitting the traffic identified in the soft schedule to an entity in the underlying network.

12. The scheduler of claim 11 wherein the machine executable instructions configures the scheduler to buffer a portion of the received traffic in accordance with an indication that the portion cannot be scheduled for transmission in a current transmission window.

13. The scheduler of claim 12 wherein the machine executable instructions configures the scheduler to transmit an indication of an updated resource allocation to a scheduler in a supported network slice in accordance with the buffered traffic.

14. The scheduler of claim 11 wherein the machine executable instructions configures the scheduler to store traffic associated with the soft schedule.

15. The scheduler of claim 14 wherein the machine executable instructions configures the scheduler to receive an indication of oversubscription from the scheduler in the underlying network.

16. The scheduler of claim 15 wherein the machine executable instructions configures the scheduler to flush a portion of the stored traffic associated with the soft schedule in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.

17. The scheduler of claim 11 wherein the machine executable instructions causes the scheduler to update the soft schedule in accordance with an updated resource allocation received from a resource allocator in the underlying network.

18. The method of claim 7 wherein the indication of oversubscription is from one of:
an indication that the scheduler does not have the resources in a given transmission window; and
that excess traffic was submitted and cannot be accommodated.

19. The scheduler of claim 15 wherein the indication of oversubscription is from one of:
an indication that the scheduler does not have the resources in a given transmission window; and
that excess traffic was submitted and cannot be accommodated.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a soft schedule for the transmission of the received traffic is in further accordance with feedback received from the underlying network.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the feedback includes:
adjustments to the allotment of resources in a subsequent transmission window; and
an indication of an ability to transmit more traffic than otherwise expected.

22. The scheduler of claim 11 wherein the machine readable memory storing machine executable instructions which when executed by the processor configures the scheduler to generate the soft schedule for the transmission of the received traffic in further accordance with received feedback including:
adjustments to the allotment of resources in a subsequent transmission window; and
an indication of an ability to transmit more data than otherwise expected.

23. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource allocation includes resource allocation in a given time window.

24. The scheduler of claim 11 wherein the resource allocation includes resource allocation in a given time window.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource allocation received from an underlying network is received from a resource allocator of the underlying network which provides resource allocation to multiple slices.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the supported network slice operates as a soft slice.

27. A system comprising:
a first scheduler and a second scheduler,
wherein the first scheduler is configured to:
receive traffic to be scheduled for transmission to a user equipment (UE);
generate a soft schedule for the transmission of the received traffic in accordance with a resource allocation received from the underlying network and the received traffic, wherein the resource allocation is determined based on resource guarantees, resource usage information and the minimum resources required by a supported network slice over next operational period, the supported network slice comprising a soft slice, the soft slice having flexibility in receipt of the resource allocation; and
transmit the soft schedule to the second scheduler; and

the second sch

Assignees

• Senarath Nimal Gamini
• Vrzic Sophie
• Rao Jaya
• Zhang Hang
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Senarath Nimal Gamini
• Vrzic Sophie
• Rao Jaya
• Zhang Hang

Classifications

• H04W72/535

  based on resource usage policies · CPC title

• H04L47/822

  Collecting or measuring resource availability data · CPC title

• H04L47/741

  Holding a request until resources become available · CPC title

• H04L47/522 Primary

  Dynamic queue service slot or variable bandwidth allocation · CPC title

• H04W72/1257

  Electricity · mapped topic