End-to-end network slicing (ENS) from ran to core network for next generation (NG) communications

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12368681-B2
Application number	US-202117558391-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2021
Priority date	Dec 21, 2021
Publication date	Jul 22, 2025
Grant date	Jul 22, 2025

Abstract

A computing node includes network interface circuitry and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry assigns available computing resources to a plurality of slice contexts. Each slice context of the plurality includes resource allocations of the available computing resources associated with multiple communication networks. A first portion of the resource allocations is designated as dedicated resources and a second, remaining portion is designated as shared resources. A FAFO event associated with a workload is detected. The workload executes on a network slice instance (NSI) associated with a slice context of a subset of slice contexts. The configuration of the NSI is restored to a pre-FAFO event state based on reconfiguring one or both of the dedicated resources or the shared resources of the slice context based on the resource allocations of at least a second slice context in the subset of slice contexts.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing node to implement an end-to-end network slicing (ENS) controller in a wireless network, the node comprising:
network interface circuitry; and
processing circuitry coupled to the network interface circuitry, the processing circuitry configured to:
assign available computing resources to a plurality of slice contexts, each slice context of the plurality of slice contexts including resource allocations of the available computing resources associated with multiple communication networks, and a subset of slice contexts of the plurality of slice contexts being associated with at least one security configuration that is common among the multiple communication networks;
designate a first portion of the resource allocations for each of the plurality of slice contexts as dedicated resources and a second, remaining portion of the resource allocations as shared resources;
detect a fault-attack-failure-outage (FAFO) event associated with a workload executing on a network slice instance (NSI) associated with a slice context of the subset of slice contexts, the FAFO event changing a configuration of the NSI; and
restore the configuration of the NSI to a pre-FAFO event state based on reconfiguring one or both of the dedicated resources or the shared resources of the slice context, and based on reconfiguring the resource allocations of at least a second slice context in the subset of slice contexts.

2. The computing node of claim 1 , wherein the multiple communication networks comprise a radio access network (RAN), an edge network, and a core network (CN).

3. The computing node of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is to:
configure the dedicated resources associated with the slice context of the subset of slice contexts to include a physical partition associated with a distributed unit (DU) function of the RAN and a logical partition associated with a centralized unit (CU) function of the RAN.

4. The computing node of claim 3 , wherein the logical partition includes a network function virtualization (NFV) instance of the CU function.

5. The computing node of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is to:
configure the shared resources associated with the slice context of the subset of slice contexts to include a first user plane function (UPF) component and a second UPF component of a UPF;
wherein the first UPF component is an intermediary UPF (I-UPF) in the edge network; and
wherein the second UPF component is an anchor UPF (A-UPF) in the core network.

6. The computing node of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is to:
perform attestation for each computing resource of the available computing resources to determine resource origin and proof of custody of the computing resource; and
cause assignment of the computing resource to the plurality of slice contexts based on the attestation.

7. The computing node of claim 1 , wherein the at least one security configuration is a security policy that is common to the subset of slice contexts, and the processing circuitry is to:
group the subset of slice contexts into an end-to-end slice context (ESC) group, the ESC group comprising at least a second subset of slice contexts of the plurality of slice contexts, the second subset of slice contexts associated with the security policy.

8. The computing node of claim 7 , wherein the processing circuitry is to:
select another slice context from the ESC group based on detecting the FAFO event; and
instantiate the NSI based on the selected another slice context, to restore the configuration of the NSI to the pre-FAFO event state.

9. The computing node of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
store via the network interface circuitry, the subset of slice contexts in a network storage location, wherein each slice context in the subset of slice contexts indicates the dedicated resources and the shared resources.

10. The computing node of claim 9 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
identify a status of the workload executing on the NSI based on detecting the FAFO event, to determine a fault in the configuration of the NSI.

11. The computing node of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to:
retrieve, via the network interface circuitry, a second slice context of the subset of slice contexts stored in the network storage location based on the determined fault in the configuration of the NSI.

12. The computing node of claim 1 , wherein the available computing resources are part of the computing node or a system including the computing node.

13. At least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions stored thereupon, which when executed by processing circuitry of a computing node operable to implement an end-to-end network slicing (ENS) controller in a wireless network, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:
assigning available computing resources to a plurality of slice contexts, each slice context of the plurality of slice contexts including resource allocations of the available computing resources associated with multiple communication networks;
designating a first portion of the resource allocations for each of the plurality of slice contexts as dedicated resources and a second, remaining portion of the resource allocations as shared resources;
detecting a fault-attack-failure-outage (FAFO) event associated with a workload, the workload executing on a network slice instance (NSI) associated with a slice context of a subset of slice contexts of the plurality of slice contexts, the FAFO event changing a configuration of the NSI; and
cause restoring of the configuration of the NSI to a pre-FAFO event state based on reconfiguring one or both of the dedicated resources or the shared resources of the slice context, and based on reconfiguring the resource allocations of at least a second slice context in the subset of slice contexts.

14. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the subset of slice contexts of the plurality of slice contexts being associated with at least one security configuration that is common among the multiple communication networks, and wherein the multiple communication networks comprise a radio access network (RAN), an edge network, and a core network (CN).

15. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:
configuring the dedicated resources associated with the slice context of the subset of slice contexts to include a physical partition associated with a distributed unit (DU) function of the RAN and a logical partition associated with a centralized unit (CU) function of the RAN; and
wherein the logical partition includes a network function virtualization (NFV) instance of the CU function.

16. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:
configuring the shared resources associated with the slice context of the subset of slice contexts to include a first user plane function (UPF) component and a second UPF component of a UPF;
wherein the first UPF component is an intermediary UPF (I-UPF) in the edge network; and
wherein the second UPF component is an anchor UPF (A-UPF) in the core network.

17. The at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the at least one security configuration is a security policy that is common to the subset of slice contexts, and wherein the operation

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Sharma Banjade Vesh Raj
• Jha Satish Chandra
• Smith Ned M
• Alam S M Iftekharul
• Maciocco Christian
• Yang Liuyang Lily
• Vij Mona
• Doshi Kshitij Arun
• Guim Bernat Francesc
• Chen Kuilin Clark

Classifications

• H04W12/10

  Integrity · CPC title

• H04W12/122

  Counter-measures against attacks; Protection against rogue devices · CPC title

• H04W24/04

  Arrangements for maintaining operational condition · CPC title

• H04W28/16

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

• H04W24/02

  Arrangements for optimising operational condition · CPC title