Method and system for multicast and broadcast services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019158985-A1
Application number	US-201816195469-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 19, 2018
Priority date	Nov 22, 2017
Publication date	May 23, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of MB delivery of Downlink (DL) MB Data to a plurality of Electronic Devices (EDs) connected to a (Radio) Access Network (R)AN node, the method comprises: storing the DL MB Data in a buffer of the (R)AN node; and transmitting, by the (R)AN node, the DL MB Data to the plurality of EDs.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method of multicast/broadcast (MB) session establishment, the method comprising:
receiving, by a session management function (SMF), a request for a MB session establishment; selecting, by the SMF, an access and mobility management function (AMF) according to the request; sending, by the SMF, a notification indicating the MB session establishment to a plurality of electronic devices (EDs) via the selected AMF; and receiving, by the SMF, an acknowledgement from at least one of the selected AMF and at least one of the plurality of EDs.

2 . The method of claim 1 further comprising: sending a request for the MB session establishment to a user plane (UP) function (UPF), the request including parameters for use by the UPF for transmitting downlink (DL) MB data associated with the MB session.

3 . The method of claim 1 further comprising: requesting at least one (R)AN node to establish of the MB session.

4 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, by the SMF, a message indicating that a transmission of DL MB data associated with the MB session is complete; and

indicating, by the SMF, to an application function which requested the MB session that the transmission of DL MB data associated with the MB session is complete.

5 . A method of multicast/broadcast (MB) session establishment, the method comprising:
receiving, by an access and mobility management function (AMF), a request for a MB session establishment from a network exposure function (NEF); sending, by the AMF, a request to a network repository function (NRF) to provide session management function (SMF) information for SMF selection; and requesting, by the AMF, a MB session establishment to a selected SMF.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the SMF information for SMF selection includes at least one of internal electronic device (ED) group identifier (ID), application function (AF) information, geographical zone identifier (ID), and radio access network (R)AN address(es).

7 . A method of multicast/broadcast (MB) delivery, the method comprising:
receiving, by a network exposure function (NEF), a request for a MB session establishment from an application function; notifying a session management function (SMF), by the NEF, of the request for the MB session establishment; receiving and buffering downlink MB data of a MB session; receiving information, by the NEF, associated with a user plane (UP) function (UPF) which is responsible for transmitting the downlink MB data of the MB session; and transmitting the downlink MB data to a RAN node via the UPF.

8 . The method of claim 7 further comprising: selecting, by the NEF, the SMF.

9 . The method of claim 7 , the request being received via control signalling.

10 . A method of multicast/broadcast (MB) delivery, the method comprising:
storing downlink (DL) MB data associated with a MB session in a buffer of a radio access network (R)AN node; transmitting, by the (R)AN node, the DL MB data to a plurality of electronic devices (EDs) connected to the (R)AN node; receiving, by the (R)AN node, a retransmission request from at least one of the plurality of EDs after the MB data associated with the MB session has been transmitted; and retransmitting at least a part of the MB data associated with the MB session, by the (R)AN node, according to the retransmission request.

11 . The method of claim 10 wherein the retransmission request is a unicast retransmission request.

12 . The method of claim 11 wherein the part of the MB data associated with a MB session data is retransmitted to one of following: the at least one of the EDs that sent the retransmission request, and the plurality of EDs that the DL MB data associated with a MB session has been sent to.

13 . The method of claim 10 further comprising: receiving a size of the buffer to store the DL MB data associated with a MB session from a session management function (SMF).

14 . The method of claim 10 further comprising: receiving a notification from a user plane (UP) function (UPF), the notification indicating that all the DL MB data associated with a MB session has been transmitted.

15 . The method of claim 10 further comprising: sending a message to the plurality of EDs, the message indicating the MB data associated with a MB session has been transmitted.

16 . The method of claim 10 further comprising: sending, by the (R)AN node, a message indicating that a transmission of the DL MB data associated with the MB session is complete, to a session management function.

17 . A method of multicast/broadcast (MB) delivery, comprising:
receiving, by an electronic device (ED), downlink (DL) multicast/broadcast (MB) data associated with a MB session from a radio access network (R)AN node of the network; if a part of the DL MB data is missing, requesting the (R)AN node to retransmit the missing part of the DL MB data; and receiving, by the ED, a retransmission of the part of the DL MB data from the (R)AN node.

18 . The method of claim 17 , before the requesting, further comprising: receiving a message indicating the MB data associated with the MB session has been transmitted.

Assignees

• Dao Ngoc Dung
• Li Xu
• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Dao Ngoc Dung
• Li Xu

Classifications

• H04W76/40

  for selective distribution or broadcast · CPC title

• H04W4/06 Primary

  Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services · CPC title

• H04W28/04

  Error control · CPC title

• H04L67/147

  Signalling methods or messages providing extensions to protocols defined by standardisation · CPC title

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title