Framework for computing in radio access network (ran)

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020404069-A1
Application number	US-202017014937-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 8, 2020
Priority date	Sep 11, 2019
Publication date	Dec 24, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

The present disclosure provides embodiments in which computing (e.g., edge computing) is part of base station (BS) capability. These embodiments may enable conducting computing offloading between a user equipment (UE) and BS in the radio access network (RAN), for example, compute in the RAN, and deliver “true” edge computing user experience. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

First claim

1 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media (NTCRM) having instructions, stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors cause a user equipment (UE) to:
perform a workload offloading capabilities exchange with a base station (BS); perform a radio link (RL) establishment with the BS; initiate workload offloading to the BS; and offload computational tasks to the BS for execution.

2 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein performing the workload offloading capabilities exchange comprises sending an RRC message to the BS including capabilities supporting workload offloading and/or computational capabilities.

3 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein performing the workload offloading capabilities exchange comprises receiving BS capabilities related to workload offloading in an RRC message and/or an SIB.

4 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein performing the RL establishment comprises sending an RRC message for radio resource establishment request, and receiving a response from the BS indicating acceptance or rejection of the request.

5 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 4 , wherein the workload offloading initation is to be performed over a dedicated data radio bearer (DRB) established during the RL establishment performance.

6 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 5 , wherein the RL resource request for workload migration is piggybacked with the workload migration request, and the RL resource response includes information for the DRB establishment is piggybacked with the workload migration response.

7 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 5 , wherein the RRC message sent to the BS includes the RL resource request, piggybacked with the offloading tasks, and the RRC message from the BS includes the RL resource response piggybacked with the workload execution results.

8 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein performing the RL establishment comprises:
receiving an RRC message for radio resource establishment request from the BS; determining whether to accept or reject the request; and sending a response to the BS indicating the acceptance or the rejection of the request.

9 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein initiating the workload offloading to the BS comprises: sending a workload migration request to the BS, the workload migration message including an application on-boarding message including information to be used by the BS for the workload offloading.

10 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 9 , wherein the application on-boarding message includes a resource of an application image, and the BS is to obtain an application image from a cloud computing service using the resource (address) included in the application on-boarding message.

11 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 9 , wherein initiating the workload offloading to the BS comprises: receiving a workload migration response from the BS, the workload migration response including an indication of whether the a workload migration request was accepted or rejected by the BS, wherein when accepted, the workload migration response includes instructions to prepare for the workload offloading.

12 . The one or more NTCRM of claim 1 , wherein offloading the computational tasks to the BS for execution comprises:
sending offloading tasks to the BS, wherein the offloading tasks include executable code, instructions, and/or data; and receiving results of the offloading execution from the BS.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Li Qian
• Wu Geng
• Ding Zongrui
• Tong Xiaopeng
• Vidal Gabriel Arrobo
• Stojanovski Alexandre Saso

Classifications

• H04L67/59 Primary

  Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable · CPC title

• H04W8/24 Primary

  Transfer of terminal data · CPC title

• G06F2209/509

  Offload · CPC title

• G06F9/5072

  Grid computing · CPC title

• H04W76/10

  Connection setup · CPC title