Systems for enabling communications over shared spectrum using O-RAN fronthaul interface in radio access networks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12574747-B2
Application number	US-202217723563-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2022
Priority date	Apr 22, 2021
Publication date	Mar 10, 2026
Grant date	Mar 10, 2026

Abstract

A method of operating an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) fronthaul interface between O-RAN radio unit (O-RU) and an O-RU controller for controlling the O-RU includes: sending, from the O-RU to the O-RU controller, a message informing whether the O-RU supports Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) operation; and if so, sending from the O-RU to the O-RU controller a report of capabilities of the O-RU including whether spectrum measurement is supported; if the O-RU supports spectrum measurement, providing an indication the O-RU supports either measurement without grant or measurement with gram from a Spectrum Access System (SAS); and sending from the O-RU to the O-RU controller a Federal Communications Commission certification identification (FCC ID) for the O-RU, Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD) category for the O-RU, user registration identification (userId) for CBRS, installation parameters, grouping parameters, and/or a call sign device identifier provided by the FCC.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of operating an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) fronthaul interface between O-RAN radio unit (O-RU) and an O-RU controller for controlling the O-RU, comprising:
sending, from the O-RU to the O-RU controller, a message informing whether the O-RU supports Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) operation; when the O-RU supports the CBRS operation, sending from the O-RU to the O-RU controller a report of capabilities of the O-RU, wherein the report includes: i) an indication of whether the O-RU supports spectrum measurement comprising power measurement; ii) when the O-RU supports spectrum measurement comprising power measurement, one of an indication the O-RU supports measurement without grant from a Spectrum Access System (SAS) or an indication the O-RU supports measurement with grant from the SAS; and iii) at least one of Federal Communications Commission certification identification (FCC ID) for the O-RU, Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device (CBSD) category for the O-RU, user registration identification (userId) for CBRS, certified professional installer (CPI) signature data, installation parameters, grouping parameters, and a call sign device identifier provided by the FCC; when the O-RU supports measurement with a grant from the SAS, the O-RU controller sends a power measurement request message to the O-RU to configure the O-RU to perform a power measurement only after a grant has been issued from the SAS and based on at least one configuration parameter included in the measurement request message, said configuration parameter including at least one of: i) measurement frequency start; ii) measurement frequency end; iii) measurement bandwidth per channel; and iv) measurement duration per channel, and wherein the power measurement request message is sent by the O-RU controller via one of management plane (M-plane) and control plane (C-plane); when the O-RU supports measurement without a grant from the SAS, the O-RU controller sends a power measurement request message to the O-RU to configure the O-RU to perform a power measurement one of i) before initiating the registration procedure with the SAS, ii) after initiating the registration procedure with the SAS, or iii) after reception of CBSD registration response from the SAS, the power measurement being performed based on at least one configuration parameter included in the measurement request message, said configuration parameter including at least one of: i) measurement frequency start; ii) measurement frequency end; iii) measurement bandwidth per channel; and iv) measurement duration per channel, and wherein the power measurement request message is sent by the O-RU controller via one of management plane (M-plane) and control plane (C-plane); sending, by the O-RU, a report message to the O-RU controller, said report message including results of the power measurement performed by the O-RU; and forwarding, by the O-RU controller, the report message to a domain proxy (DP) which is interfaced with the SAS through an interface and is configured to engage in communications with the SAS on behalf of multiple individual CBSDs or networks of CBSDs to perform registration of said CBSDs with the SAS.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of:
i) the O-RU controller is implemented in one of Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) unit, O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU), Network Management System (NMS), and as a separate node; ii) at least one of the capability parameters is included by the O-RU in a capability YANG module; and iii) the CPI signature data is included in a capability Yang module if a CPI enters the CPI data directly into the O-RU.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
when the O-RU controller receives indication the O-RU supports CBRS operation, performing the following: initiating, by the O-RU controller, CBSD registration process for the O-RU with the SAS by i) sending a CBSD registration request to the SAS, and ii) receiving a CBSD registration response from the SAS.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
aggregating, by the O-RU controller, i) registration information from the O-RU for the CBSD registration request, and ii) registration information from at least one other O-RU for a corresponding CBSD registration request; sending, by the O-RU controller, the aggregated registration information to the domain proxy (DP); and performing, by the DP, the registration process by i) sending the CBSD registration requests to the SAS, and ii) receiving corresponding CBSD registration responses from the SAS.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
activating, by the O-RU controller, a carrier for over the air (OTA) operation only after a CBSD corresponding to the O-RU is transitioned from a granted state to an authorized state.

6 . A method of operating an Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) fronthaul interface between O-RAN radio unit (O-RU) and an O-RU controller for controlling the O-RU, said O-RU supporting Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), said method comprising:
sending, by the O-RU controller, a power measurement request message to the O-RU requesting the O-RU to perform a power measurement based on at least one configuration parameter included in the measurement request message, said configuration parameter including at least one of: i) measurement frequency start; ii) measurement frequency end; iii) measurement bandwidth per channel; and iv) measurement duration per channel, and wherein the power measurement request message is sent by the O-RU controller via one of management plane (M-plane) and control plane (C-plane); sending, by the O-RU, a report message to the O-RU controller, said report message including results of the power measurement performed by the O-RU; and forwarding, by the O-RU controller, the report message to a domain proxy (DP) which is interfaced with a Spectrum Access System (SAS) through an interface and is configured to engage in communications with the SAS on behalf of multiple individual Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs) or networks of CBSDs to perform registration of said CBSDs with the SAS.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the measurement request message is sent by the O-RU controller for each time measurement desired from the O-RU.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein:
the measurement request message includes the measurement duration per 10 MHz channel; the measurement performed includes the entire CBRS band; and the measurement bandwidth is set to 10 MHz.

9 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the power measurement request message is sent by the O-RU controller only once for time measurements desired from the O-RU.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the power measurement request message further includes at least one of: v) measurement periodicity for which the O-RU performs the measurements; and vi) reporting periodicity for which the O-RU reports the measurements; and the O-RU performs measurements periodically and reports the measurements results periodically via measurement notifications to the O-RU controller.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein:
when the O-RU controller specifies a measurement periodicity less than the reporting periodicity, the O-RU i) averages the measurement results per channel across different measurements occasions since the previous measurement report, and ii) reports the averaged measurement results to the O-RU controller.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein:
the power measurement request message includes i) the measurement duration per 10 MHz channel, ii) measurement periodicity for which the O-RU performs th

Assignees

• Mavenir Systems Inc

Inventors

• Ahmed Wessam Afifi
• Kachhla Rasiklal
• Piercy Neil

Classifications

• H04W72/23

  in the downlink direction of a wireless link, i.e. towards a terminal · CPC title

• H04W92/12

  between access points and access point controllers · CPC title

• H04W60/04

  using triggered events · CPC title

• H04W24/10

  Scheduling measurement reports {; Arrangements for measurement reports} · CPC title

• H04W92/14

  between access point controllers and backbone network device · CPC title