Multi-access edge computing (MEC) translation of radio access technology messages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11064057-B2
Application number	US-201816646957-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2018
Priority date	Nov 30, 2017
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

An architecture to allow the translation or conversion of short-range direct communications between devices with different radio access, such as in a V2X (vehicle-to-everything) communication context, is disclosed. In an example, a translation process, such as is performed by a mobile/multi-access edge computing (MEC) communication entity, includes: obtaining or accessing, at a translation function, a communication message (e.g., IP message) provided from a first device operating with a first radio access technology (e.g., LTE C-V2X), the message addressed to a second device operating with a second radio access technology (e.g., IEEE 802.11p or DSRC/ITS-G5); converting the communication message, with the translation function, into a format compatible with the second radio access technology; and initiating a transmission of the translated communication message, from the translation function, to the second device using the second radio access technology.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
network communication circuitry, configured to communicate with:
a first network, comprising a wireless local area network (WLAN) having at least one access point to communicate using a first radio access technology according to an IEEE 802.11p or DSRC/ITS-G5 standards family; and
a second network, comprising a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network having at least one base station to communicate using a second radio access technology according to a 3GPP LTE standards family;

processing circuitry; and
a memory device including instructions embodied thereon, wherein the instructions, which when executed by the processing circuitry, configure the processing circuitry to perform operations of a multi-access edge computing (MEC) host in a MEC system architecture, the MEC host configured by the instructions to:
access, at a translation function operating at the MEC host, a received communication message provided from a first device on the first network operating with the first radio access technology, the communication message addressed to a second device on the second network operating with the second radio access technology;
convert the communication message, with the translation function, into a format compatible with the second radio access technology, to produce a translated communication message; and
initiate a transmission of the translated communication message, from the translation function, to the second device via the second network using the second radio access technology.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the communication message is an internet protocol (IP) message, and wherein the first device and the second device operate within a vehicle communications environment.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the apparatus is a road side unit (RSU) operating as an infrastructure component of the vehicle communications environment, and wherein the first device and the second device are provided from a respective user equipment (UE) in respective vehicles.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the MEC host includes at least one MEC application which provides vehicle-to-everything (V2X) application functions, wherein the at least one MEC application provides translation capabilities for the translation function based on information from at least one MEC application programming interface (API), the MEC API being operable within a MEC platform operated by the MEC host.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations to initiate the transmission of the translated communication message include operations to initiate the transmission of a translated internet protocol (IP) message from the MEC host to a second MEC host, wherein the second MEC host is used to provide the translated IP message to the second device, wherein the MEC host is connected to the first device via the first network, and wherein the second MEC host is connected to the second device via the second network.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations to initiate the transmission of the translated communication message include operations to transmit a translated internet protocol (IP) message from the MEC host to a network access point using LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA), wherein a data plane of the MEC system architecture is used to route IP traffic from the first network to the second network.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations to convert the communication message are performed with transcoding of the communication message in at least one of the: radio, network, transport, application, or facility layers.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the MEC host operates according to a standard from an European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) standards family, and wherein the translation function is further configured to convert another received communication message from a format compatible with the second radio access technology into a format compatible with the first, radio access technology.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the operations to convert include use of a stored translation definition, the translation definition used to transcode the communication message between a LIE cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) message format and an IEEE 802.11p or DSRC/ITS-G5 message format.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the communication message is a safety message related to vehicle operation, and wherein the translation function pre-allocates processing and memory resources for translating the safety message.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is connected to at least one access point or base station of one or both of the first network or the second network via a wired network connection.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the translation function is provided by a MEC application, and wherein the translated communication message is communicated in a container including the translated communication message and the communication message before translation.

13. A method, performed by a translation function operating at a multi-access edge computing (MEC) host in a MEC system architecture, the method comprising:
receiving, at the translation function, a communication message provided from a first device operating on a first network using a first radio access technology, the communication message addressed to a second device operating on a second network using a second radio access technology;
converting the communication message, with the translation function, into a format compatible with the second radio access technology to produce a translated communication message; and
transmitting, from the translation function, the translated communication message, wherein the translated communication message is provided to the second device via the second network using the second radio access technology;
wherein the first network comprises a wireless local area network (WLAN) having at least one access point to communicate using a first radio access technology according to an IEEE 802.11p or DSRC/ITS-G5 standards family; and
wherein the second network comprises a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network having at least one base station to communicate using a second radio access technology according to a 3GPP LTE standards family.

14. The method of claim 13 , and wherein the first device and the second device operate within a vehicle communications environment.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the method is performed using network equipment included in a road side unit (RSU) operating as an infrastructure component of the vehicle communications environment, and wherein the first device and the second device are provided from a respective user equipment (UE) in respective vehicles.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the MEC host includes at least one MEC application which provides vehicle-to-everything (V2X) application functions, wherein the at least one MEC application provides translation capabilities of the translation function based on information from at least one MEC application programming interface (API), the MEC API being operable within a MEC platform operated by the MEC host.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein transmitting the translated communication message includes transmitting a translated internet protocol (IP) message from the MEC host to a second MEC host, wherein the second MEC host is used to provide the translated IP message to the second device, wherein the MEC host is connected to the first device via the first network, and wherein the second MEC hos

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Sabella Dario
• Mueck Markus Dominik
• Filippou Miltiadis
• Baltar Leonardo Gomes
• Faerber Michael

Classifications

• H04L69/08 Primary

  Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04W4/40

  for vehicles, e.g. vehicle-to-pedestrians [V2P] · CPC title

• H04L67/289

  Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network · CPC title