CN-122002488-A - Method and apparatus for implementing network sustainability mode in a wireless communication network

CN122002488ACN 122002488 ACN122002488 ACN 122002488ACN-122002488-A

Abstract

The present disclosure provides methods and apparatus for implementing a network sustainability mode in a wireless communication network, including receiving one or more values from an OAM system indicative of energy consumption and/or carbon emissions of a communication network serving a first set of user devices, determining a network sustainability mode associated with the communication network for the first set of user devices from a plurality of network sustainability modes, wherein the determining is based on the one or more values indicative of energy consumption and/or carbon emissions of the communication network, and a period of time within which the determined network sustainability mode is valid, identifying a second set of user devices from the first set of UEs based on UE analysis information corresponding to respective UEs in the first set of UEs, and transmitting the determined network sustainability mode and period of time to UEs in the second set of UEs.

Inventors

E. Ava
J. HARRIS
O. U. Akgur
J. A. Pereira Rodriguez
M. Sinai Yi
L. Gox
S. Ava

Assignees

诺基亚技术有限公司

Dates

Publication Date: 20260508
Application Date: 20251105
Priority Date: 20241108

Claims (10)

1. A method performed by one or more network functions of a communication network, the method comprising: receiving, from an operations, administration and maintenance OAM system, one or more values indicative of energy consumption of the communication network serving a first set of user equipments, UEs, and/or one or more values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network serving the first set of user equipments; Determining a network sustainability mode related to the communication network for the first set of user devices from a plurality of network sustainability modes, wherein the determining is based on the one or more values indicative of energy consumption of the communication network serving the first set of user devices and/or the one or more values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network serving the first set of user devices, and a period of time within which the determined network sustainability mode is valid; identifying a second set of UEs from the UEs in the first set of UEs based on UE analysis information corresponding to respective UEs in the first set of UEs; Transmitting the determined network sustainability mode, and the period of time within which the determined network sustainability mode is valid, to a respective UE in the second set of UEs.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Transmitting one or more suggested UE actions associated with the determined network sustainability mode to at least one UE in the second set of UEs to enable the at least one UE to perform at least one action of the one or more suggested UE actions associated with the determined network sustainability mode, wherein the one or more suggested UE actions include at least one of: During the period of time, ceasing to utilize services provided by the communication network to respective UEs in the second set of UEs; Deferring sending at least some traffic to the communication network until after the period of time; Deferring at least some traffic requested to be sent by the communication network until after the period of time; changing the timing of periodic application synchronization of the UE; Offloading some of the operations of the UE to another UE in the second set of UEs, or Changing the access type of the UE so that the UE can access an access network indicated by the access type.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more values indicative of energy consumption of the network comprise one or more key performance indicator, KPI, values indicative of energy consumption of the communication network and/or one or more values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network comprise one or more KPI values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network.
4. A method according to claim 3, wherein the one or more KPI values for the communication network include: a combined KPI value indicating energy consumption of a radio access network, RAN, and a core network of the communication network, and/or a combined KPI value indicating carbon emissions of the RAN and the core network; a KPI value indicating energy consumption of a RAN of the communication network, and/or a KPI value indicating carbon emissions of the RAN of the communication network; A KPI value indicating energy consumption of a RAN node of the communication network, and a KPI value indicating carbon emissions of the RAN node; A KPI value indicating energy consumption of the communication network to provide the UE of the first set of UEs with a specific service of the communication network, and/or a KPI value indicating carbon emission of the communication network to provide the UE of the first set of UEs with a specific service of the communication network; a KPI value indicative of energy consumption of a network slice of the communication network, and/or a KPI value indicative of carbon emissions of the network slice of the communication network, or A KPI value indicative of energy consumption of an edge computing system of the communication network, and/or a KPI value indicative of carbon emissions of the edge computing system of the communication network.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more values indicative of energy consumption and/or one or more values indicative of carbon emissions are related to traffic associated with a particular application running in the respective UE in the first set of UEs or to a particular type of service provided by the communication network to the first set of UEs.
6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Determining the network sustainability mode and the time period is performed by a network data analysis function NWDAF, a network sustainability mode function NSMF or an energy information function EIF, and The identifying and transmitting the determined network sustainability mode and the time period to the identified one or more UEs is performed by a session management function, SMF, or an application function, AF, of the communication network.
7. A method of a user equipment, UE, of a communication network, the method comprising: receiving a network sustainability mode associated with a communication network serving the UE, and a period of time within which the network sustainability mode is valid; Determining at least one of one or more suggested actions associated with the network sustainability mode to be performed, and During the time period, the determined at least one of the one or more suggested actions is performed.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining at least one of the one or more actions associated with the determined network sustainability mode comprises receiving input from a user of the UE selecting the at least one of the one or more actions, and/or Wherein the one or more suggested actions include at least one of: During the period of time, ceasing to utilize services provided by the communication network to respective UEs in the second set of UEs; Deferring sending at least some traffic to the communication network until after the period of time; Deferring at least some traffic requested to be sent by the communication network until after the period of time; changing the timing of periodic application synchronization of the UE; Offloading some of the operations of the UE to another UE in the second set of UEs, or Changing the access type of the UE so that the UE can access an access network indicated by the access type.
9. An apparatus for a communication network, the apparatus comprising: Configured to perform one or more network functions of the method of any one of claims 1 to 6.
10. A user equipment, comprising: At least one processor, and At least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the user equipment to perform the method of claim 7 or 8.

Description

Method and apparatus for implementing network sustainability mode in a wireless communication network Technical Field The present disclosure relates to implementing a network sustainability mode in a wireless communication network. Background The energy consumed by a wireless communication network may vary based on a number of different factors, including the type of service provided (e.g., video, voice), the number of User Equipments (UEs) transmitting traffic over the communication network, and the amount of traffic transmitted over the communication network. As different factors affecting energy consumption vary, the amount of energy consumed by the wireless communication network also varies. The energy consumed by a communication network to transmit per unit flow at any given time may be referred to as a network energy consumption rate, which may be expressed in units of energy consumed per unit flow (e.g., joules/byte) or in units of carbon emissions per unit flow (e.g., kilograms/byte). One way to reduce the total energy consumed by a communication network is to reduce the amount of traffic through the wireless communication network when the network energy consumption rate is high. However, one challenge is that operators of wireless communication networks may have little control over the amount of traffic sent to their wireless communication networks. Developments in reducing power consumption in wireless communication networks are desirable. Disclosure of Invention According to one aspect of the embodiments, the present disclosure provides a method performed by one or more network functions of a communication network, the method comprising receiving one or more values from an operations, administration and maintenance (OAM) system indicative of energy consumption of the communication network serving a first set of user equipments, and/or one or more values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network serving the first set of user equipments, determining a network sustainability mode associated with the communication network for the first set of user equipments from a plurality of network sustainability modes, wherein the determining is based on the one or more values indicative of energy consumption of the communication network serving the first set of user equipments, and/or the one or more values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network serving the first set of user equipments, and a period within which the determined network sustainability mode is valid, identifying a second set of UEs from UEs in the first set of UEs based on UE analysis information corresponding to respective UEs in the first set of UEs, transmitting the determined sustainability mode to respective UEs in the second set of UEs, and the determined network sustainability mode is within the period within which the determined sustainability mode is valid. In one example, the method further includes transmitting, to at least one UE in the second set of UEs, one or more suggested UE actions associated with the determined network sustainability mode to enable the at least one UE to perform at least one action of the one or more suggested UE actions associated with the determined network sustainability mode. In one example, the one or more suggested UE actions include at least one of ceasing to utilize a service provided by the communication network to a respective UE in the second set of UEs during the time period, deferring at least some traffic to the communication network until after the time period, changing timing of periodic application synchronization of the UE, offloading some operations of the UE to another UE in the second set of UEs, or changing an access type of the UE to enable the UE to access the access network indicated by the access type. In one example, the method further includes an act of sending one or more suggestions associated with a respective network sustainability mode of the plurality of network sustainability modes to a respective UE of the first set of UEs. In one example, the one or more values indicative of energy consumption of the network include one or more Key Performance Indicator (KPI) values indicative of energy consumption of the communication network and/or the one or more values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network include one or more KPI values indicative of carbon emissions of the communication network. In one example, the method further includes receiving one or more Performance Measurement (PM) values from the OAM system indicative of traffic through the communication network during the time period, and determining a network energy consumption rate expressed in units of energy consumed per unit of traffic through the communication network based on the one or more PM values and one or more KPI values indicative of energy consumption of the communication network, and/or determining a carbon emission rate expressed in units of carbon em