Method and system for auto-commissioning virtualized radio access networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12356252-B2
Application number	US-202217924954-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2022
Priority date	Jun 14, 2022
Publication date	Jul 8, 2025
Grant date	Jul 8, 2025

Abstract

An auto-commissioning server may be used in the auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs) by receiving a plurality of parameters from a site controller of a cell site, an inventory, and a plurality of network entities; automatically generating a day zero configuration based on the received plurality of parameters; deploying the network function(s) of the vRANs into a cloud server based on the automatically generated day zero configuration; receiving a power-on notification message from a RU of the cell site, wherein the power-on notification message may indicate the RU of the cell site is ready for radio signal transmission; and activating the deployed network function(s) of the vRANs before transmitting a radio signal from the RU of the cell site.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs) by an auto-commissioning server, the method comprises:
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a plurality of parameters from a site controller of a cell site, an inventory, and a plurality of network entities;
automatically generating, by the auto-commissioning server, a day zero configuration based on the received plurality of parameters;
deploying, by the auto-commissioning server, at least one network function of the vRANs into a cloud server based on the automatically generated day zero configuration;
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a power-on notification message from a Radio Unit (RU) of the cell site, wherein the power-on notification message indicates that the RU of the cell site is ready for radio signal transmission; and
activating, by the auto-commissioning server, the at least one deployed network function of the vRANs before transmitting a radio signal from the RU of the cell site.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, the plurality of parameters from the site controller comprises:
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a first set of parameters of the plurality of parameters from the site controller, wherein the first set of parameters comprises connectivity information associated with at least one of the cell site associated with the site controller and a datacenter, wherein the first set of parameters is stored in the inventory.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, the plurality of parameters from the inventory comprises:
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a second set of parameters of the plurality of parameters from the inventory, wherein the second set of parameters comprises at least one of cell site information and datacenter information, wherein the cell site information and the datacenter information comprising at least one of a logical identifier associated with each network entity of the at least one of the cell site associated with the site controller and the datacenter, and physical information associated with each network entity of the at least one of the cell site associated with the site controller and the datacenter, wherein the second set of parameters is stored in the inventory.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, the plurality of parameters from the plurality of network entities comprises:
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server a third set of parameters of the plurality of parameters from the plurality of network entities, wherein the plurality of network entities comprises a radio frequency (RF) planning tool, an internet protocol (IP) address controller, a name identifier, and a security engine.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein receiving, by the auto-commissioning server the third set of parameters of the plurality of parameters from the plurality of network entities comprises:
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a radio frequency (RF) planning data and a radio unit (RU) mapping information with the at least one network function from the RF planning tool, wherein the least one network function comprises a centralized unit control plane (CUCP), centralized unit user plane (CUUP), and virtual distributed unit (vDU), wherein the auto-commissioning server identifies the inventory and the cloud server where the network function to be instantiated, wherein the RF planning data comprises a physical cell identifier (PCI) and Received signal strength (RSS);
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a plurality of ip addresses for the at least one network function and the RU 109 of the cell site from the IP address controller, wherein the plurality of IP addresses is generated based on a selected inventory for deployment of the least one network function;
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a unique hostname for the at least one network function and the cell site from the name identifier, wherein the unique hostname is generated based on at least one of a type of network function, a type of the inventory, and location information associated with the inventory; and
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a unique transport layer security (TLS) user name and password to enroll a certificate from a security engine, wherein the certificate is automatically installed for the at least one network function.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein deploying, by the auto-commissioning server, the at least one network function into the cloud server based on the automatically generated day zero configuration comprises:
sending, by the auto-commissioning server, a request to the cloud server to deploy the at least one network function;
deploying, by the auto-commissioning server, the at least one network function into the cloud server; and
receiving, by the auto-commissioning server, a status message from the cloud server, wherein the status comprises at least one of a successful deployment of the at least one network function, a deployment failure of the at least one network function, and a deployment termination of the at least one network function.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically registering, by the auto-commissioning server, a plurality of generated IP addresses of the at least one network function and associated fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in a domain name system (DNS) server; and
sending, by the auto-commissioning server, updated information to the inventory to store the updated information, wherein the updated information comprises a status message along with a logical identifier related to the at least one network function.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein activating, by the auto-commissioning server, the at least one deployed network function of the vRANs before radiating of the RU of the cell site comprises:
sending, by the auto-commissioning server, a request to a configuration management device to generate a day-one configuration of the at least one network function based on a status message and the power-on notification message, wherein the configuration management device comprises a plurality of third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)-specific parameters to automatically generate at least one file, wherein the at least one automatically-generated file is used to activate the at least one deployed network function of vRANs, wherein the at least one network function initiates a Network Configuration Protocol (NETCONF) session with the configuration management device and the configuration management device pushes the day-one configuration to a network function controller when the NETCONF session successfully established;
sending, by the auto-commissioning server, a request to the configuration management device to generate and push radio unit (RU) configuration to the at least one network function of the network function controller upon receiving the power-on notification message;
sending, by the auto-commissioning server, a notification response by sharing the parent network function connectivity information to the RU of the cell site, wherein the RU of the cell site initiates radiation upon receiving the radio configuration from the at least one network function of the network function controller.

9. An auto-commissioning server for auto-commissioning of virtualized Radio Access Networks (vRANs), comprising:
a memory storing instructions;
an auto-commissioning engine comprising at least one processor configured to execute the instructions to:
receive a plurality of parameters from a site

Assignees

• Rakuten Mobile Inc

Inventors

• Madan Ashish
• Kumar Manish
• Rathore Shubham
• Soni Apoorva
• Singh Pawar Alok
• Atri Rahul
• Jain Amber

Classifications

• H04W8/26

  Network addressing or numbering for mobility support · CPC title

• H04L41/0806

  for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play · CPC title

• H04L61/5007

  Internet protocol [IP] addresses · CPC title

• H04W4/50

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• H04W28/16 Primary

  Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service] · CPC title