Systems and methods of orchestrating a virtualized base station

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12192099-B2
Application number	US-202217875084-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2022
Priority date	Jul 27, 2021
Publication date	Jan 7, 2025
Grant date	Jan 7, 2025

Abstract

Systems and methods for orchestrating a virtualized 5G gNB are provided. In one example, a system for orchestrating wireless service includes a scalable cloud environment configured to implement a base station using a plurality of virtualized base station entities. Each virtualized base station entity of the plurality of virtualized base station entities configured to implement at least some functions for one or more layers of a wireless interface used to communicate with UEs. The scalable cloud environment further configured to implement a service orchestration tool including one or more interfaces configured to receive common configuration parameters that are applicable to multiple sites of an operator and to receive site-specific configuration parameters that are unique to respective sites of the operator. The service orchestration tool configured to automatically generate deployment files for the plurality of virtualized base station entities based on the common configuration parameters and the site-specific configuration parameters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for orchestrating wireless service, comprising:
a scalable cloud environment, implemented using processing and memory resources in physical computing devices, configured to implement:
a base station using a plurality of virtualized base station entities, wherein each virtualized base station entity of the plurality of virtualized base station entities is configured to implement at least some functions for one or more layers of a wireless interface used to communicate with user equipment; and
a service orchestration tool including one or more interfaces configured to receive common configuration parameters that are applicable to multiple sites of an operator and to receive site-specific configuration parameters that are unique to respective sites of the operator;
wherein the service orchestration tool is configured to automatically generate deployment files for the plurality of virtualized base station entities based on the common configuration parameters and the site-specific configuration parameters.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of virtualized base station entities include:
a virtualized central unit (vCU), wherein the vCU is configured to implement at least one CU-control-plane (CU-CP) virtual network function and at least one CU-user-plane (CU-UP) virtual network function; and
a virtualized distributed unit (vDU) served by the vCU, wherein the vDU is configured to serve at least some of the user equipment, wherein the vDU is configured to implement at least one DU virtual network function.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the system comprises one or more radio units (RUS), wherein each RU is communicatively coupled to the vDU and is associated with a respective set of one or more antennas via which downlink radio frequency signals are radiated to at least some of the user equipment and via which uplink radio frequency signals transmitted by at least some of the user equipment are received.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the common configuration parameters include:
data provided from the operator including a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier for mobile core network traffic and mobile core network server information;
data provided from a management service provider including Element Management Server (EMS) server information, host specific configurations for the plurality of virtualized base station entities, and security information; and/or
service orchestration tool configurations including VLAN IP address range for internal traffic, interface name format, deployment name format, service name format, and remote unit (RU) IP address range.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the site-specific configuration parameters include:
data provided from the operator including a source IP address range for a site for core network communication, radio access network (RAN) configurations for the plurality of virtualized base station entities, and identifiers for the plurality of virtualized base station entities; and/or
data provided from a management service provider including deployment specific parameters for the plurality of virtualized base station entities, Precision Time Protocol (PTP) configurations, venue information, bill of materials, and/or external virtual local area network (VLAN) IP address range.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the service orchestration tool is configured to automatically generate the deployment files for the plurality of virtualized base station entities by assigning default configuration settings based on the common configuration parameters, wherein the system is configured to substitute one or more of the default configuration settings with site-specific configuration settings based on the site-specific configuration parameters after the plurality of virtualized base station entities are brought into an operational state.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the deployment files for each respective virtualized base station entity of the plurality of virtualized base station entities include a plurality of configuration settings used to implement interfaces of the respective virtualized base station entity for different traffic types, wherein the plurality of configuration settings includes identifiers for the interfaces, virtual local area network identifier information for the interfaces, and IP addresses for the interfaces.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the service orchestration tool is configured to assign a same identifier for each interface of the plurality of virtualized base station entities that is used to communicate a same traffic type.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the service orchestration tool is further configured to automatically generate one or more additional configuration files based on the common configuration parameters and the site-specific configuration parameters, wherein the one or more additional configuration files are utilized to orchestrate and/or instantiate the plurality of virtualized base station entities.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more additional configuration files include one or more edge cloud configuration files and one or more configuration files that can be utilized by an Element Management System (EMS).

11. A method for orchestrating a virtualized gNB, comprising:
using a scalable cloud environment that is implemented using processing and memory resources in physical computing devices and configured to implement:
a base station using a plurality of virtualized entities, wherein each virtualized entity of the plurality of virtualized entities is configured to implement at least some functions for one or more layers of a wireless interface used to communicate with user equipment; and
a service orchestration tool including one or more interfaces configured to receive common configuration parameters that are applicable to multiple sites of an operator and to receive site-specific configuration parameters that are unique to respective sites of the operator,
wherein the service orchestration tool is configured to automatically generate deployment files for the plurality of virtualized entities based on the common configuration parameters and the site-specific configuration parameters.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of virtualized entities include:
a virtualized central unit (vCU), wherein the vCU is configured to implement at least one CU-control-plane (CU-CP) virtual network function and at least one CU-user-plane (CU-UP) virtual network function; and
a virtualized distributed unit (vDU) served by the vCU, wherein the vDU is configured to serve at least some of the user equipment, wherein the vDU is configured to implement at least one DU virtual network function.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the virtualized gNB further includes one or more radio units (RUs), wherein each RU is communicatively coupled to the vDU and is associated with a respective set of one or more antennas via which downlink radio frequency signals are radiated to at least some of the user equipment and via which uplink radio frequency signals transmitted by at least some of the user equipment are received.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the common configuration parameters include:
data provided from the operator including a virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier for mobile core network traffic and mobile core network server information;
data provided from a management service provider including Element Management System (EMS) server information, host specific configurations for the plurality of virtualized entities of the virtualized gNB, security informati

Assignees

• Commscope Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Sambandan Devaraj
• Ramakrishnan Shanthakumar
• Krishnamoorthi Diwakaran
• Chowdam Chandra Sekhar
• Graff Robert
• Lovell Raymond Zachary

Classifications

• H04L12/4641

  Virtual LANs, VLANs, e.g. virtual private networks [VPN] (LAN interconnection over a bridge based backbone H04L12/462; encapsulation techniques H04L12/4633; routing of packets H04L45/00; packet switches H04L49/00; virtual private networks for security H04L63/0272) · CPC title

• H04W28/0992 Primary

  based on the type of application · CPC title

• H04W16/18

  Network planning tools · CPC title

• H04W88/085

  Access point devices with remote components · CPC title

• H04L45/64 Primary

  using an overlay routing layer · CPC title