Selectively enabling identifier resources for connections in a fifth generation (5G) or other next generation wireless network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11438940-B2
Application number	US-202016854350-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 21, 2020
Priority date	Apr 21, 2020
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

Technologies described herein are generally directed to facilitating the allocation, scheduling, and management of network slice resources. According some embodiments, a system can facilitate performance of operations. The operations can include facilitating receiving information regarding a characteristic of a potential connection, by a user device, to respective network devices of a group of provider networks. The operations can further include facilitating selecting an identifier resource from a group of identifier resources, the group comprising the identifier resources available to the user device for a connection to a corresponding network device of a provider network from the respective network devices of the group of provider networks, resulting in a selected identifier resource. Further, the operations can include communicating the selected identifier resource to the user device for use by the user device to establish the connection to the corresponding network device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. Network equipment, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory that stores executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
receiving information regarding a characteristic of a potential connection, by a user equipment, to respective network equipment of a group of provider networks maintained by network providing entities, wherein receiving the information regarding the characteristic of the potential connection comprises retrieving a current network cost characteristic from an information device maintained by respective provider networks,
based on the information, selecting an identifier resource from a group of identifier resources, the group comprising the identifier resources available to the user equipment for a connection to a corresponding network equipment of a provider network from the respective network equipment of the group of provider networks, resulting in a selected identifier resource, and
communicating the selected identifier resource to the user equipment for use by the user equipment to establish the connection to the corresponding network equipment.

2. The network equipment of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving a selection condition from the user equipment, and wherein selecting the identifier resource is based on the selection condition.

3. The network equipment of claim 2 , wherein the selection condition comprises a condition identified based on input collected via a user interface of the user equipment.

4. The network equipment of claim 2 , wherein the selection condition comprises a connection cost condition, wherein the characteristic of the potential connection comprises a connection cost characteristic of the potential connection, and wherein selecting the identifier resource based on the selection condition comprises selecting the identifier resource corresponding to the network equipment of the provider network that is determined to be able to provide the connection with the connection cost characteristic that satisfies the connection cost condition.

5. The network equipment of claim 4 , wherein the connection cost condition comprises a lowest connection cost condition.

6. The network equipment of claim 2 , wherein the selection condition comprises a connection bandwidth condition, wherein the characteristic of the potential connection comprises a connection bandwidth characteristic of the connection, and wherein selecting the identifier resource based on the selection condition comprises selecting the identifier resource corresponding to the network equipment of the provider network that is determined to be able to provide the connection with the connection bandwidth characteristic that satisfies the connection bandwidth condition.

7. The network equipment of claim 6 , wherein the connection bandwidth condition comprises a highest connection bandwidth condition.

8. The network equipment of claim 1 , wherein the identifier resource comprises an electronic subscriber network authenticator for use to connect the user equipment to network devices respectively corresponding to different provider networks.

9. The network equipment of claim 1 , wherein selecting the identifier resource from the group of identifier resources is performed on a per session basis.

10. A method, comprising:
facilitating, by a user device comprising a processor, receiving, from a network device, a communication that comprises an indication corresponding to a subscriber authenticator selected by the network device from a group of subscriber authenticators, the group comprising the subscriber authenticators available for use to connect the user device to network devices respectively corresponding to different provider networks maintained by network providers, wherein the communication was generated by the network device based on a current network cost retrieved by the network device from respective provider information sources,
analyzing, by the user device, a characteristic of a network device, of the network devices, of a provider network corresponding to the subscriber authenticator, wherein the communication further comprises information corresponding to the characteristic of the network device of the provider network; and
based on the indication from the network device and a result of the analyzing the characteristic of the provider network, selecting, by the user device, the network device of the provider network, resulting in a selected network device of a selected provider, and a selected corresponding subscriber authenticator.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising identifying, by the user device, a selection condition for use by the network device to select the subscriber authenticator corresponding to the provider network, wherein the selection condition is for an evaluation of the network devices of the different provider networks, by the network device, to facilitate selection of the subscriber authenticator by the network device.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the selection condition comprises a connection cost condition, wherein the characteristic of the provider network comprises a connection cost characteristic of the provider network, and wherein the different provider networks evaluated the provider network based on the selection condition.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein identifying the selection condition comprises identifying the selection condition based on input collected via a user interface of the user device.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
identifying, by the user device, the group of subscriber authenticators available for use to connect to the network devices of the different provider networks, resulting in an identified group; and
communicating, by the user device, the identified group and network information representative of the network devices of the different provider networks to the network device for use in selection of the subscriber authenticators from the identified group.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the subscriber authenticator is a first subscriber authenticator, wherein the network device is a first network device of a first provider network, and wherein selecting the network device of the provider network comprises, based on an additional connection to be established by the user device, selecting a second network device of a second provider network corresponding to a second subscriber authenticator.

16. The method of claim 10 , wherein the subscriber authenticator comprises an electronic subscriber network authenticator for use to connect the user device to network devices respectively corresponding to different provider networks.

17. A machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a processor of a network device, facilitate performance of operations, comprising:
receiving, from a user device, information corresponding to a group of subscriber authenticators identified by the user device as available to be used for a connection by the user device to a network device of a provider network, of network devices of provider networks corresponding to the group of subscriber authenticators;
identifying information regarding a characteristic of potential connections, by the user device, to the network devices of the provider networks, maintained by network providing entities, wherein identifying the information regarding the characteristic of the potential connections comprises retrieving a current network cost characteristic from an information device

Assignees

• At & T Ip I Lp
• At & T Mobility Ii Llc

Inventors

• Sikes Jason
• Braunecker David
• Hamilton James
• Ayyagari Ramesh
• Barksdale Iii James
• Balog Charles

Classifications

• H04W76/11 Primary

  Allocation or use of connection identifiers · CPC title

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W72/04

  Wireless resource allocation · CPC title