Management of a split physical layer in a radio area network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12016084-B2
Application number	US-201916239493-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 3, 2019
Priority date	Jan 4, 2018
Publication date	Jun 18, 2024
Grant date	Jun 18, 2024

Abstract

Methods and systems for facilitating communication between a core network and a wireless terminal in an upper first-level protocol unit (UL 1 ) of a radio access network (RAN) as disclosed. An upper first level protocol unit (UL 1 ) performs a first portion of a first-level protocol of the RAN in a first apparatus and communicates over a fronthaul link with a lower first-level protocol unit (LL 1 ). The LL 1 is in a second apparatus separate from the first apparatus. A communication quality parameter for communication between the first apparatus and the LL 1 is determined, and a message related to the communication quality parameter is sent by the UL 1 to an entity of the RAN other than the LL 1.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for facilitating communication between a core network and a wireless terminal in an upper first-level protocol unit (UL 1 ) of a radio access network (RAN), the method comprising:
performing a first portion of a physical-layer (PHY) protocol of the RAN in a first apparatus;
communicating over a fronthaul link with a lower first-level protocol unit (LL 1 ), the LL 1 in a second apparatus separate from the first apparatus, wherein a remaining portion of the PHY protocol is performed by the LL 1 ;
determining a communication quality parameter for communication between the first apparatus and the LL 1 ; and
sending a message related to the communication quality parameter to an entity other than the LL 1 .

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a request for the communication quality parameter, wherein said sending is performed in response to said receiving.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising detecting an event related to the communication quality parameter, wherein said sending is performed in response to said detecting.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication quality parameter is based on a condition of the fronthaul link.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the communication quality parameter is based on an availability of a computational resource in the first apparatus.

6. The method of claim 1 , the fronthaul link comprising a non-deterministic communication link.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing a value for a RAN parameter based on the communication quality parameter; and
including the value for the RAN parameter in the message.

8. The method of claim 7 , the RAN parameter comprising one or more scheduling constraints.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more scheduling constraints comprise a number of resource blocks, a number of wireless terminals handled by the LL 1 , a number of spatial streams from the LL 1 dedicated to the wireless terminal, or a modulation and coding scheme.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message is sent to a second software module performing a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer protocol of the RAN, wherein the first portion of the PHY protocol of the RAN is performed by a first software module running on the first apparatus.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message is sent over a computer network to a third apparatus running a software module performing a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer protocol of the RAN.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message is sent to an Operations, Administration, and Management (OAM) module of the RAN.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the message is sent to a second software module in a second data path between the core network and another wireless terminal, the second software module outside of a first data path between the core network and the wireless terminal, wherein the first portion of the PHY protocol of the RAN is performed by a first software module, running on the first apparatus, in the first data path.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating with a second LL 1 , the second LL 1 in a third apparatus, separate from the first apparatus and the second apparatus, and in a data path for communication between the core network and a second wireless device;
determining a second communication quality parameter for communication between the first apparatus and the second LL 1 ; and
sending a second message related to the second communication quality parameter to an entity different than the LL 1 and the second LL 1 .

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a second message from the entity other than the LL 1 in response to the message, the second message related to a control of a second LL 1 coupled to the first apparatus by the fronthaul link.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a second message from the entity other than the LL 1 in response to the message, the second message related to a control of a second LL 1 coupled to the first apparatus by a second fronthaul link.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a second message indicating a signal quality parameter for radio frequency communication with the wireless terminal from said entity, said entity performing a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer protocol of the RAN;
determining a compression parameter for the fronthaul link based on the signal quality parameter; and
communicating the compression parameter to the LL 1 .

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising
formatting the message as a vendor extension message compliant with the network functional application platform interface (nFAPI) specification; and
sending a nFAPI message, including the message formatted as the vendor extension message, to said entity, said entity performing a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer protocol of the RAN.

19. An article of manufacture comprising a tangible medium, that is not a transitory propagating signal, encoding computer-readable instructions that, when applied to a computer system, instruct the computer system to perform a method for facilitating communication between a core network and a wireless terminal in an upper first-level protocol unit (UL 1 ) of a radio access network (RAN), the method comprising:
performing a first portion of a physical-layer (PHY) protocol of the RAN in a first apparatus;
communicating over a fronthaul link with a lower first-level protocol unit (LL 1 ), the LL 1 in a second apparatus separate from the first apparatus, wherein a remaining portion of the PHY protocol is performed by the LL 1 ;
determining a communication quality parameter for communication between the first apparatus and the LL 1 ; and
sending a message related to the communication quality parameter to an entity other than the LL 1 .

20. An apparatus for facilitating communication between a core network and a wireless terminal, the apparatus comprising:
a hardware interface to a fronthaul link for communication with a lower first-level protocol unit;
a processor coupled to the hardware interface to the fronthaul link; and
memory, coupled to the processor, having instructions stored therein;
the processor programmed by the instructions to:
perform a first portion of a physical-layer (PHY) protocol of the RAN in the apparatus, the apparatus being a first apparatus;
communicate over the fronthaul link with the LL 1 , the LL 1 in a second apparatus separate from the first apparatus, wherein a remaining portion of the PHY protocol is performed by the LL 1 ; and
determine a communication quality parameter for communication between the first apparatus and the LL 1 ; and
send a message related to the communication quality parameter to an entity other than the LL 1 .

21. The method of claim 1 wherein the RAN utilizes fronthaul split Option 7-1 or Option 7-2 as defined by 3GPP.

22. A system for facilitating communication between a core network and a wireless terminal comprising:
a baseband unit (BBU) comprising an upper first-level protocol unit (UL1) of a radio access network (RAN) configured to perform a first portion of a physical-layer (PHY) protocol of the RAN;
a remote radio unit (RRU) comprising a lower first-level protocol unit (LL1) configured to perform a remaining portion of the PHY protocol; and
an entity other than the RRU;
wherein the BBU is configured to communicate over a fronthaul link with the LL1 in the RRU;
wherein

Assignees

• Commscope Inc North Carolina
• Commscope Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Barbieri Alan
• Fertonani Dario

Classifications

• H04W28/18 Primary

  Negotiating wireless communication parameters · CPC title

• H04W92/10

  between terminal device and access point, i.e. wireless air interface · CPC title

• H04W80/02

  Data link layer protocols · CPC title

• H04W72/0446

  Resources in time domain, e.g. slots or frames · CPC title

• H04L1/0014

  by adapting the source coding · CPC title