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EP-4736526-A1 - FIRST NODE, SECOND NODE AND METHODS PERFORMED THEREBY FOR HANDLING RESOURCES IN A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

EP4736526A1EP 4736526 A1EP4736526 A1EP 4736526A1EP-4736526-A1

Abstract

A computer-implemented method, performed by a first node (111). The method is for handling resources in a communications system (100). The first node (111) operates in a communications system (100). The first node (111) obtains (205) a request to allocate a first capacity required for usage of a slice for usage in the communications system (100). The first capacity corresponds to a set of resources. The request comprises one or more first indications indicating a set of requirements to be fulfilled by the slice. The one or more first indications comprise one or more second indications explicitly indicating at least one period of time in the future for the usage. The first node (111) also reserves (207) a set of resources in the communications system (100) required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time. The first node (111) additionally initiates (208) providing another indication of the reserved set of resources.

Inventors

  • MUJALE, Mohammed Ziauddin

Assignees

  • Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20230630

Claims (20)

  1. 1. A computer-implemented method performed by a first node (111), the method being for handling resources in a communications system (100), the first node (111) operating in the communications system (100), and the method comprising: - obtaining (205) a request to allocate a first capacity required for usage of a slice in the communications system (100), the first capacity corresponding to a set of resources in the communications system (100), the request comprising one or more first indications indicating a set of requirements to be fulfilled by the slice, and the one or more first indications comprising one or more second indications explicitly indicating at least one period of time in the future for the usage, and - reserving (207) a set of resources in the communications system (100) required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time, and - initiating (208) providing another indication of the reserved set of resources.
  2. 2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising: - monitoring (201) a capacity of the communications system (100) for allocation of the resources for usage by slices, and wherein the reserving (207) is based on the monitored capacity.
  3. 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: - determining (206), based on the monitored capacity and the obtained request, a) the first capacity required for usage of the slice and b) the set of resources, and wherein the reserving (207) is based on the determined first capacity and the determined set of resources.
  4. 4. The method according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the obtained request is a second request and wherein the method further comprises at least one of: - receiving (202), from a second node (112) operating in the communications system (100), a first request requesting an availability of the set of resources required for usage of the slice, during at least the one period of time, - determining (203), responsive to at least the received first request, the availability of the set of resources in the communications system (100), and wherein the reserving (207) is based on the determined availability, - initiating (204) providing to the second node (112) a first indication of the determined availability, and wherein the second request is based on the provided first indication, - releasing (210) at least a respective subset of the reserved set of resources once at least a respective period of time, of the at least one period of time, has concluded, and - sending (211) a further indication to the second node (112), the further indication indicating that at least the respective subset of the reserved set of resources has been released or is to be released once at least a respective period of time, of the at least one period of time, has concluded.
  5. 5. The method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein the one or more second indications indicate at least one of: - a type of one or more traffic flows for which the first capacity is requested to be allocated, - a periodicity of the traffic flows, - a start time of the traffic flows, - a duration of the traffic flows, and - a recurrence of the traffic flows.
  6. 6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the obtained request is a second request and wherein the one or more second indications explicitly indicate a plurality of periods of time in the future for the usage, and wherein the method further comprises: - scheduling (209), responsive to the obtained second request and based on the reserved set of resources, a provision of the set of resources for the plurality of periods of time by sending a third request to the second node (112), the third request requesting to provision a respective subset of the set of resources for every period of time in the plurality.
  7. 7. The method according any of claims 4 or 6, wherein at least one of: a. the resources comprise at least one of time-frequency/ resources and computing resources, b. the set of resources comprises at least one of radio resources and core network resources, c. the reservation of the resources is performed per cell for radio resources, and per hardware resource for core network resources, d. the first node (111) manages a capacity management service in the communications system (100), e. the second node (112) manages a provisioning management service in the communications system (100), and f. the communications system (100) is a Fifth Generation, 5G, network.
  8. 8. A computer-implemented method performed by a second node (112), the method being for handling resources in a communications system (100), the second node (112) operating in the communications system (100), and the method comprising: - sending (304), to a first node (111) operating in the communications system (100), a request to allocate a first capacity required for usage of a slice in the communications system (100), the first capacity corresponding to a set of resources in the communications system (100), the request comprising one or more first indications indicating a set of requirements to be fulfilled by the slice, and the one or more first indications comprising one or more second indications explicitly indicating at least one period of time in the future for the usage, and - receiving (305), from the first node (111), another indication indicating a reserved set of resources in the communications system (100), required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time.
  9. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the request is a second request and wherein the method further comprises at least one of: - receiving (301), from a third node (113) operating in the communications system (100), a prior indication requesting an availability of the set of resources in the communications system (100) required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time, and wherein the sent second request is responsive to the received prior indication, - sending (302), to the first node (111), a first request requesting the availability of the set of resources in the communications system (100) required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time, - receiving (303), from the first node (111), a first indication of the availability, and wherein the second request is responsive to the received first indication, - receiving (308), from the first node (111), a further indication indicating that at least a respective subset of the reserved set of resources has been released or is to be released once at least a respective period of time, of the at least one period of time, has concluded, and releasing (309), responsive to the received further indication, at least the respective subset of the reserved set of resources.
  10. 10. The method according to any of claims 8-9, wherein the sent request is a second request and wherein the one or more second indications explicitly indicate a plurality of periods of time in the future for the usage, and wherein the method further comprises: - receiving (306), responsive to the sent request and based on the reserved set of resources, a third request from the first node (111), the third request requesting to provision a respective subset, of the set of resources, for every period of time in the plurality, and - provisioning (307), responsive to the received third request, the respective subset, of the set of resources, for every period of time in the plurality.
  11. 11. The method according to any of claims 8-10, wherein the one or more second indications indicate at least one of: - a type of one or more traffic flows for which the first capacity is requested to be allocated, - a periodicity of the traffic flows, - a start time of the traffic flows, - a duration of the traffic flows, and - a recurrence of the traffic flows.
  12. 12. The method according any of claims 8-11, wherein at least one of: a. the resources comprise at least one of time-frequency resources and computing resources, b. the set of resources comprises at least one of radio resources and core network resources, c. the reservation of the resources is performed per cell for radio resources, and per hardware resource for core network resources, d. the first node (111) manages a capacity management service in the communications system (100), e. the second node (112) manages a provisioning management service in the communications system (100), and f. the communications system (100) is a Fifth Generation, 5G, network.
  13. 13. A first node (111), for handling resources in a communications system (100), the first node (111) being configured to operate in the communications system (100), and the first node (111) being further configured to: - obtain a request to allocate a first capacity required for usage of a slice in the communications system (100), the first capacity corresponding to a set of resources in the communications system (100), the request being configured to comprise one or more first indications configured to indicate a set of requirements to be fulfilled by the slice, and the one or more first indications being configured to comprise one or more second indications configured to explicitly indicate at least one period of time in the future for the usage, and - reserve a set of resources in the communications system (100) configured to be required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time, and - initiate providing another indication of the reserved set of resources.
  14. 14. The first node (111) according to claim 13, being further configured to: - monitor a capacity of the communications system (100) for allocation of the resources for usage by slices, and wherein the reserving is configured to be based on the capacity configured to be monitored.
  15. 15. The first node (111) according to claim 14, being further configured to: - determine, based on the capacity configured to be monitored and the request configured to be obtained, a) the first capacity configured to be required for usage of the slice and b) the set of resources, and wherein the reserving is configured to be based on the first capacity configured to be determined and the set of resources configured to be determined.
  16. 16. The first node (111) according to any of claims 13-15, wherein the request configured to be obtained is configured to be a second request and wherein the first node (111) is further configured to at least one of: - receive, from a second node (112) configured to operate in the communications system (100), a first request configured to request an availability of the set of resources configured to be required for usage of the slice, during at least the one period of time, - determine, responsive to at least the first request configured to be received, the availability of the set of resources in the communications system (100), and wherein the reserving is configured to be based on the availability configured to be determined, - initiate providing to the second node (112) a first indication of the availability configured to be determined, and wherein the second request is configured to be based on the first indication configured to be provided, - release at least a respective subset of the set of resources configured to be reserved once at least a respective period of time, of the at least one period of time, has concluded, and - send a further indication to the second node (112), the further indication being configured to indicate that at least the respective subset of the reserved set of resources has been released or is to be released once at least a respective period of time, of the at least one period of time, has concluded.
  17. 17. The first node (111) according to any of claims 13-16, wherein the one or more second indications are configured to indicate at least one of: - a type of one or more traffic flows for which the first capacity is configured to be requested to be allocated, - a periodicity of the traffic flows, - a start time of the traffic flows, - a duration of the traffic flows, and - a recurrence of the traffic flows.
  18. 18. The first node (111) according to any of claims 13-17, wherein the request configured to be obtained is configured to be a second request and wherein the one or more indications are configured to explicitly indicate a plurality of periods of time in the future for the usage, and wherein the first node (111) is further configured to: - schedule, responsive to the second request configured to be obtained and based on the set of resources configured to be reserved, a provision of the set of resources for the plurality of periods of time by sending a third request to the second node (112), the third request being configured to request to provision a respective subset of the set of resources for every period of time in the plurality.
  19. 19. The first node (111) according any of claims 16 or 18, wherein at least one of: a. the resources are configured to comprise at least one of time-frequency/ resources and computing resources, b. the set of resources are configured to comprise at least one of radio resources and core network resources, c. the reservation of the resources is configured to be performed per cell for radio resources, and per hardware resource for core network resources, d. the first node (111) is configured to manage a capacity management service in the communications system (100), e. the second node (112) is configured to manage a provisioning management service in the communications system (100), and f. the communications system (100) is a Fifth Generation, 5G, network.
  20. 20. A second node (112), for handling resources in a communications system (100), the second node (112) being configured to operate in the communications system (100), and the second node (112) being further configured to: - send, to a first node (111) configured to operate in the communications system (100), a request to allocate a first capacity required for usage of a slice in the communications system (100), the first capacity corresponding to a set of resources in the communications system (100), the request being configured to comprise one or more first indications configured to indicate a set of requirements to be fulfilled by the slice, and the one or more first indications being configured to comprise one or more second indications explicitly configured to indicate at least one period of time in the future for the usage, and - receive, from the first node (111), another indication configured to indicate a reserved set of resources in the communications system (100), configured to be required for usage of the slice during at least the one period of time.

Description

FIRST NODE, SECOND NODE AND METHODS PERFORMED THEREBY FOR HANDLING RESOURCES IN A COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates generally to a first node and methods performed thereby for handling resources in a communications system. The present disclosure also relates generally to a second node, and methods performed thereby for handling the resources in the communications system. The present disclosure also relates generally to computer programs and computer-readable storage mediums, having stored thereon the computer programs to carry out these methods. BACKGROUND Computer systems in a communications network or communications system may comprise one or more nodes. A node may comprise a processing circuitry which, together with computer program code may perform different functions and actions, a memory, a receiving port, and a sending port. A node may be, for example, a server. Nodes may perform their functions entirely on the cloud. The communications system may cover a geographical area which may be divided into cell areas, each cell area being served by a type of node, a network node in the Radio Access Network (RAN), radio network node or Transmission Point (TP), for example, an access node such as a Base Station (BS), e.g., a Radio Base Station (RBS), which sometimes may be referred to as e.g., gNB, evolved Node B (“eNB”), “eNodeB”, “NodeB”, “B node”, or Base Transceiver Station (BTS), depending on the technology and terminology used. The base stations may be of different classes such as e.g., Wide Area Base Stations, Medium Range Base Stations, Local Area Base Stations and Home Base Stations, based on transmission power and thereby also cell size. A cell may be understood to be the geographical area where radio coverage may be provided by the base station at a base station site. One base station, situated on the base station site, may serve one or several cells. Further, each base station may support one or several communication technologies. The telecommunications network may also comprise network nodes which may serve receiving nodes, such as user equipments, with serving beams. The standardization organization Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is currently in the process of specifying a New Radio Interface called Next Generation Radio or New Radio (NR) or 5G-Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), as well as a Fifth Generation (5G) Packet Core Network, which may be referred to as 5G Core Network (5GC), abbreviated as 5GC. A network slice may be understood to be a logical network that may serve a defined purpose. Network slices may be understood to comprise multiple slice subnets which in turn may comprise all the network resources that may be required to perform the defined purpose, configured together. The slice subnets may represent the subnetworks in the RAN, Core and Transport domains. It may be possible to have one or more slice subnets in each of the domains. A network slice may be created, changed, and removed by management functions. A RAN slice subnet may provide the slicing capability in a Radio Access Network (RAN). The RAN slice subnet may use different mechanisms such as Radio Resource Management (RRM) policies and Quality of Service (QoS). The RRM policies may be applied on the radio resources to provide the dedicated share to the slice subnet. The radio resources may be required only when the data from user traffic may need to be transmitted and received. Management functions may drive some of the capacity management for network slices by allocation and deallocation of resources. 3GPP provides a definition of the Radio Resource Management policy concept and modelling in 3GPP TS 28.541 , v. 18.3.1. TS 28.541 , v. 18.3.1 also provides a definition of the profiles as requirements. Profiles may be understood to be the requirements that may be provided to the Management Functions to be fulfilled. For Network Slices, service profiles may be defined, and for Slice subnets, slice profiles may be used. Profile parameters may be derived from Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) Generic Network Slice Template (GST)/ NEtwork Slice Type (NEST) Profiles. 3GPP in TS 28.531 , v. 18.1.0 has provided a definition of use cases and procedures related to network slices. It has provided a definition of the allocation, deallocation, feasibility checks with or without reservations and few more procedures. 3GPP in TS 28.531 , v. 18.1.0 has pointed to the need for ensuring that the Operations Support Systems (OSS) Management System may need to have the capability to provide the required assurance to the consumers wanting to know the availability of capacity for their respective business cases in the future. Management Functions may need to determine the radio resources that may need to be configured for a particular slice that may be requested. In case of core Slice Subnets or Network Slice Subnet Instances (NSSIs), the availability of resources