System and methods for mission execution in network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025062970-A1
Application number	US-202418936346-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Nov 4, 2024
Priority date	Jun 22, 2022
Publication date	Feb 20, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

An X-centric network architecture and associated methods are provided. The network architecture provides comprehensive control and processing functions that support heterogenous XaaS services. For different XaaS services, the network architecture supports the activation/selection of different functions/interfaces. The network architecture has a control/management (C/M) plane that includes a mission manager (MM) that manages a mission comprising tasks associated with heterogenous services. The network architecture also has a mission data plane (MDP) coupled to the C/M plane. The MDP plane includes processing functions (PFs) required for the tasks and also includes data plane functions (DPFs) that are configured to interface a PF of a XaaS service to a PF of a different XaaS service. The network architecture also has one or multiple XaaS module(s) which may be provided by third parties as plug-in module(s). Each XaaS module is associated with a XaaS service, one of multiple XaaS service controller(s) (XC), and one or multiple PF(s)/DPF(s) conducting corresponding tasks. Detail procedures, interfaces, and signals for mission execution and device accessing a mission (mission access) are described in the associated methods.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A system, comprising:
a control/management (C/M) plane, including:
a mission manager (MM) configured to manage a mission, the mission comprising tasks associated with heterogenous services provided by respective XaaS modules; and
a mission data plane, including:
processing functions (PFs), the tasks comprising the PFs, each XaaS module comprising at least one PF, each PF configured to interface with at least one of: another PF, a device and an application server; and
data plane functions (DPFs), the tasks comprising the DPFs, each DPF configured to interface a first PF of a first XaaS module to a second PF of a second XaaS module, the MM configured to manage the mission by scheduling and coordinating the tasks associated with the heterogenous services.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the MM is configured to do at least one of:
dynamically schedule and coordinate the tasks in accordance with dynamic resource conditions or dynamic network conditions; and schedule and coordinate the tasks in accordance with a pre-determined workflow.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein each XaaS module comprises a respective XaaS service controller (XC), each XC being coupled to the MM, each XC configured to schedule and coordinate an execution of PFs of the respective XaaS module and an execution of DPFs associated with the PFs.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the C/M plane defines at least one of:
a network registry (NRF) function configured to store and maintain pre-determined data associated with at least one of: the PFs, the DPFs, the tasks and the mission; a network exposure function (NEF) configured to manage an interconnection between the XaaS modules and application functions (AFs), the AFs configured to create a mission, trigger a mission or both create a mission and trigger the mission; and a connectivity manager (CM) configured to manage an access of a device to the mission.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first XaaS module comprises a first DPF coupled to the first PF, the first DPF and the first PF forming a first XaaS data plane function (XDPF), the second XaaS module comprises a second DPF coupled to the second PF, the second DPF and the second PF forming a second XDPF, the first XDPF is coupled to the second XDPF, the PF of the first XaaS service is coupled to the PF of the second XaaS service via the DPF of the first XaaS service and the DPF of the second XaaS service.

6 . A method comprising:
by a network exposure function (NEF),
obtaining, from a device or an application function (AF), a mission execution request (MER) for a mission comprising tasks;
establishing a mission execution procedure to select a mission manager (MM) to manage the mission;
receiving, from the MM, a mission ready acknowledgment (ACK) message indicating the mission is ready for execution; and
forwarding the mission ready ACK message to the device or the AF to cause an execution of the mission, the device, the AF, the NEF, and the MM being comprised in network elements in a network, the network elements further comprising at least one of: a network registry function (NRF), XaaS service controllers (XCs), processing functions (PFs), data plane functions (DPFs), a device, and an application server (AS);
using the network elements other than the NEF and the NRF, to execute the tasks of the mission.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the MM is configured to do at least one of:
conduct a XC selection and configuration procedure for a particular task to be triggered, and to conduct a trigger task execution procedure; and conduct a mission establishment procedure to establish a partial mission data plane for the task to be triggered, then to conduct a XC selection and configuration procedure for the task to be triggered, and the then conduct a trigger task execution procedure.

8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the MM is configured to monitor the current running tasks and to manage the XCs associated to the running tasks by sending task management messages to the XCs associated to the running tasks.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the content of the task management messages includes at least one of a task suspension signal, a task waiting time to start, and a resource utilization constraint for parallel running tasks.

10 . The method of claim 6 , wherein for each task, the task execution is gradually conducted by the data sending, receiving and processing/computing behaviors running on the PFs and DPFs comprised in the task.

11 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the XC is configured to monitor the PFs and the DPFs and to provide XC management messages to the PFs and to the DPFs.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the XC management messages comprise at least one of a PF/DPF running suspension signal, a PF/DPF waiting time start, resource utilization constraints for parallel running of the PF and the DPFs.

13 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the XC is configured to do at least one of:
send a mission data plane modification request message to the MM to re-select the associated PFs/DPFs due to load balancing or device access impacts; send a notification message to the MM, the notification message comprising at least one of: a task start indicator or time, a task execution complete message, a device arrival/dropout indicator, and a task execution result; and receive work complete messages sent by the PFs and the DPFs, the work complete messages indicating the completion of the PFs and the DPFs running.

14 . The method of claim 6 , wherein establishing the mission execution procedure comprises:
by the NEF,
sending, to a network registry function (NRF), a query message for mission data associated with the MER;
receiving the mission data; and
selecting the MM to manage the mission in accordance with the mission data.

15 . The method of claim 14 , the method further comprising:
by the MM,
receiving the MER and the mission data from the NEF;
establishing a mission data plane (MDP) in accordance with the MER and the mission data, wherein the MDP comprises processing functions (PFs) and data plane functions (DPFs);
sending, to the NRF, a query for information on available XaaS service controllers (XCs);
receiving the information on the available XCs; and
selecting, in accordance with the information on the available XCs, one of the available XCs to obtain a selected XC to manage a task comprising the PFs and the DPFs.

16 . A method comprising:
by a device, sending, to a connectivity manager (CM) via a radio access network (RAN) node, a mission access request (MAR) to access the mission; by the CM, conducting a serving mission manager (MM) procedure to select a serving MM; by the serving MM, conducting a serving XaaS service controller (XC) procedure to select a serving XC to manage a task of a mission to be accessed by the device; by the CM, establishing the RAN node to a serving XC interface (R2X interface) configured to control signals between the serving XC and the device; and by the serving XC, sending an invite message to the device to join a data plane of the task via the R2X interface.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the serving MM procedure comprises:
by the CM,
sending, to a network registry function (NRF), the MAR;
receiving, from the NRF, a response message comprising an identification and a location/address of the MM that manages the mission;
selecting as the serving MM, the MM that manages the mission; and
sending, to the device, a message identifying the servin

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shi Weisen
• Li Xu
• Yang Chenchen

Classifications

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L41/342

  between virtual entities, e.g. orchestrators, SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L41/5051 Primary

  Service on demand, e.g. definition and deployment of services in real time · CPC title

• H04W4/50

  Service provisioning or reconfiguring · CPC title

• H04W4/70 Primary

  Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC] · CPC title