Method and apparatus for predicting a quality of service for the communication about at least one communication link of at least one communication device, communication service prediction server and computer program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11223969-B2
Application number	US-201916589755-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2019
Priority date	Oct 2, 2018
Publication date	Jan 11, 2022
Grant date	Jan 11, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure concerns a method for predicting a quality of service for a communication about at least one communication link of at least one communication device. QoS prediction may be necessary when it comes to the case that a user wants to use an application where a certain type of QoS is a presumption. For getting the best estimate of the quality of service the method comprises the steps of sending from the communication device a quality of service prediction request message hereinafter called QoS prediction request message to a communication service prediction server, predicting the quality of service in the communication service prediction server and sending back a quality of service prediction response message to the communication device. The communication device can thus decide if the predicted QoS is sufficient for the planned activity and may take a decision to either start the activity, postpone the activity or alter the activity.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for predicting a quality of service for a communication about at least one communication link of at least one communication device, the communication link being adapted to use a 5G mobile communication network with a plurality of network cells and being adapted to use network slicing technology, the method comprising:
sending from the communication device a QoS prediction request message to a communication cell localization block of a communication service prediction server, wherein the QoS prediction request message comprises in a payload section information entries for at least one planned travel route of the communication device and the communication link capacity requirements for a service the communication device is planning to make use of;
determining, by the communication cell localization block, one or more communication cells along the at least one planned travel route;
predicting, by a QoS prediction function block of the communication service prediction server, the quality of service for the at least one planned travel route on the basis of the determined one or more communication cells along the at least one planned travel route;
sending, by the communication service prediction server to the communication device, a quality of service prediction response message for the at least one travel route, and
sending a QoS prediction request acknowledge message from said communication service prediction server to said communication device, wherein said QoS prediction request acknowledge message includes an information entry for the conditions the communication service prediction server will accept an updated QoS prediction request message from the same communication device.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the payload section includes an information entry for a planned starting time.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said QoS prediction request message further comprises in said payload section one or both of the information entries for the communication link identifiers the communication device is equipped with and the communication link reliability requirements for a service the communication device is planning to make use of.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said QoS prediction response message comprises in a payload section information entries for at least the predicted communication link capacity of said at least one communication link.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein said QoS prediction response message further comprises in said payload section one or more of the information entries a predicted communication link reliability, a predicted communication link capacity confidence, a predicted communication link reliability, a validity time for the QoS prediction and a service start time for which the prediction is valid.

6. An apparatus for predicting a quality of service for a communication over at least one communication link of at least one communication device, the communication link being adapted to use a 5G mobile communication network with a plurality of network cells and the apparatus being adapted to use a 5G mobile communication network slicing technology for the communication link, the apparatus comprising:
a QoS prediction function block; and
a communication cell localization block; wherein
the communication cell localization block is configured to receive a QoS prediction request message from a communication device, the QoS prediction request message comprising in a payload section information entries for at least one planned travel route of the communication device and communication link capacity requirements for a service the communication device is planning to make use of; wherein
the communication cell localization block is furthermore configured to determine one or more communication cells along the at least one planned travel route; wherein
the QoS prediction function block is configured to forecast one or more quality of service parameters for communication along the at least one planned travel route on the basis of the determined one or more communication cells along that at least one planned travel route; wherein
the QoS prediction function block is configured to send a quality of service prediction response message to the communication device, and wherein
the communication cell localization block is configured to send a QoS prediction request acknowledge message to said communication device, wherein said QoS prediction request acknowledge message includes an information entry for the conditions the QoS prediction function block will accept an updated QoS prediction request message from the same communication device.

7. The apparatus according to claim 6 , said apparatus further comprising a channel modelling prediction block that predicts a communication channel model profile which is forwarded to the QoS prediction function block.

8. The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the apparatus further comprises a traffic flow prediction block that predicts the amount of other communication devices in the region along the planned travel route, said traffic flow prediction block being connected with the channel modelling prediction block.

9. The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the apparatus further comprises a surroundings prediction block that predicts the surroundings of the communication device when travelling along the planned travel route, said traffic surroundings prediction block being connected with the channel modelling prediction block.

10. The apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein a channel modelling prediction block, the communication cell localization block, and a surroundings prediction block have inputs for the information about the planned travel route and the planned starting time.

11. A communication service prediction server comprising an apparatus according to claim 6 .

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising program code, which when run in a processing device performs the steps of the communication service prediction server in the method according to claim 1 .

13. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said QoS prediction request message further comprises in said payload section one or both of the information entries for the communication link identifiers the communication device is equipped with and the communication link reliability requirements for a service the communication device is planning to make use of.

14. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising a step of sending a QoS prediction request acknowledge message from said communication service prediction server to said communication device, wherein said QoS prediction request acknowledge message includes an information entry for the conditions the communication service prediction server will accept an updated QoS prediction request message from the same communication device.

15. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said QoS prediction response message comprises in a payload section information entries for at least the predicted communication link capacity of said at least one communication link.

16. The method according to claim 3 , wherein said QoS prediction response message comprises in a payload section information entries for at least the predicted communication link capacity of said at least one communication link.

17. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said QoS prediction response message comprises in a payload section information entries for at least the predicted communication link capacity of said at least one communication link.

Assignees

• Volkswagen Ag

Inventors

• Zielinski Ernst
• El Assaad Ahmad
• Kwoczek Andreas
• Jornod Guillaume

Classifications

• H04W4/02

  Services making use of location information · CPC title

• H04W24/02

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title

• H04W28/021 Primary

  in wireless networks with changing topologies, e.g. ad-hoc networks (self-organizing networks H04W84/18) · CPC title

• H04L47/127

  by using congestion prediction · CPC title

• H04W4/46 Primary

  for vehicle-to-vehicle communication [V2V] · CPC title