Technique for anticipating service level impacts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11991055-B2
Application number	US-201917607140-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2019
Priority date	Apr 30, 2019
Publication date	May 21, 2024
Grant date	May 21, 2024

Abstract

A technique for anticipating impacts on service levels of one or more services provided to a User Equipment, UE, while the UE moves along a planned route is disclosed, wherein each of the one or more services is provided to the UE using a network slice in a network slicing based mobile communication system. A method implementation of the technique is performed by an anticipation component and comprises receiving (S 202 ) a service level anticipation request for the planned route of the UE, triggering (S 204 ) determining an expected impact on the service levels of the one or more services at one or more locations of the planned route, and triggering (S 206 ) sending a response to the service level anticipation request including information on the expected impact on the service levels.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for anticipating impacts on service levels of one or more services provided to a User Equipment, UE, while the UE moves along a planned route, each of the one or more services being provided to the UE using a network slice in a network slicing based mobile communication system, the method being performed by an anticipation component and comprising:
receiving a service level anticipation request for the planned route of the UE;
triggering determining an expected impact on the service levels of the one or more services at one or more locations of the planned route;
triggering sending a response to the service level anticipation request including information on the expected impact on the service levels to the UE, wherein the response comprises a list of entries, each entry of the list of entries contains a network slice identifier associated with a location in which the impact is expected to occur, wherein the information on the expected impact on the service levels included in the response to the service level anticipation request comprises, for each of the one or more services for which a negative impact on a first service level is determined in at least one geographical region, an indication of the at least one geographical region and an indication of the expected negative impact on the first service level of the respective service in the at least one geographical region; and
transmitting, to the UE, information to enable mitigating the negative impact on the service level in the area ahead of the UE, wherein the information to enable mitigating the negative impact on the service level in the area ahead of the UE is associated with downloading data to be provided to the UE before the UE enters the area on which the first service level is disrupted.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the expected impact on the service levels is determined based on network slice selection information of the UE defining, for each of the one or more services, a network slice to be used for providing the respective service to the UE while the UE moves along the planned route.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the network slice selection information corresponds to a Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, NSSAI, which includes, for each network slice to be used for providing the respective service to the UE, a Single Network Slice Selection Assistance Information, S-NSSAI, defining the respective network slice.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the network slice selection information is included in the service level anticipation request.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the expected impact on the service levels includes determining, for each pair among the one or more services and the one or more locations, an expected impact on the service level of the respective service at the respective location.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the expected impact on the service levels includes accessing one or more databases storing information on network slices and service levels associated with the network slices in different geographical regions.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anticipation component is associated with a service provider providing the one or more services to the UE, wherein determining the expected impact on the service levels includes obtaining information on the expected impact on the service levels from at least one anticipation component associated with another service provider providing the one or more services to the UE while the UE moves along the planned route.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the anticipation component is implemented in one of:
a Network Function, NF, of the mobile communication system, and
a server external to the mobile communication system.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE is a vehicle connected to the mobile communication system.

10. A computing unit configured to execute an anticipation component for anticipating impacts on service levels of one or more services provided to a User Equipment, UE, while the UE moves along a planned route, wherein each of the one or more services is provided to the UE using a network slice in a network slicing based mobile communication system, the computing unit comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one memory containing instructions executable by the at least one processor such that the anticipation component is operable to perform the method of claim 1 .

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Vidal Allan
• Gomes Da Silva Pedro Henrique
• Santos Mateus

Classifications

• 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

• H04L41/122

  of virtualised topologies, e.g. software-defined networks [SDN] or network function virtualisation [NFV] · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L41/5025 Primary

  by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade · CPC title

• H04L41/5009 Primary

  Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF] · CPC title