EP-4740541-A1 - SUPPORT ASSURANCE OF SLA FOR RAN SLICE

EP4740541A1EP 4740541 A1EP4740541 A1EP 4740541A1EP-4740541-A1

Abstract

Various aspects of the present disclosure relate to network entities and methods for supporting assurance of SLA for a RAN slice at a network entity. In one aspect, a first network entity receives, from a second network entity, second performance information related to a RAN slice. The first network entity determines, based at least on the second performance information, information related to SLA for the RAN slice.

Inventors

YANG, SHUIGEN
ZHANG, Congchi
DAI, MINGZENG
YAN, LE

Assignees

Lenovo (Beijing) Limited

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20230706

Claims (20)

A first network entity, comprising: a processor; and a transceiver coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to: receive, via the transceiver from a second network entity, second performance information related to a radio access network (RAN) slice; and determine, based at least on the second performance information, information related to service layer agreement (SLA) for the RAN slice.
The first network entity of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to: transmit, via the transceiver to the second network entity, the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice.
The first network entity of claim 1, wherein the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice comprises a measurement or prediction of at least one of the following: an indication indicating whether the SLA for the RAN slice is non-fulfilled or fulfilled, a percentage of radio resources used by the RAN slice, a ratio of the number of fulfilled parameter values associated with the SLA to a total number of parameter values associated with the SLA, or at least one action to be taken at the second network entity to fulfill the SLA.
The first network entity of claim 1, wherein the first network entity is a distributed unit (DU) in a base station.
The first network entity of claim 4, wherein the second performance information comprises a measurement or prediction of at least one of the following: an uplink (UL) packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) service data unit (SDU) loss rate of the RAN slice, a downlink (DL) PDCP SDU data volume of the RAN slice, a UL PDCP SDU data volume of the RAN slice, an average PDCP re-ordering delay in the UL of the RAN slice, or an indication indicating whether the SLA for the RAN slice is non-fulfilled or fulfilled in the second network entity.
The first network entity of claim 4, wherein the processor is configured to receive the second performance information related to the RAN slice by: transmitting a first request for the second performance information via the transceiver to the second network entity, the first request comprising an identifier of the RAN slice and a first measurement object associated with the second performance information; and receiving a first response via the transceiver from the second network entity, the first response comprising the second performance information.
The first network entity of claim 6, wherein the first measurement object comprises at least one of the following: an uplink (UL) packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) service data unit (SDU) loss rate, a PDCP SDU data volume, or an average PDCP re-ordering delay in a UL.
The first network entity of claim 4, wherein the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice comprises at least one action to be taken at the second network entity to fulfill the SLA, the at least one action comprising at least one of the following: radio admission control based on the RAN slice, or radio bearer control based on the RAN slice.
The first network entity of claim 1, wherein the first network entity is a central unit (CU) in a base station.
The first network entity of claim 9, wherein the second performance information comprises a measurement or prediction of at least one of the following: a downlink (DL) user equipment (UE) throughput of the RAN slice, an uplink (UL) UE throughput of the RAN slice, a first average over-the-air interface packet delay in a DL of the RAN slice, a first number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) used in the DL for data traffic, a second number of PRBs used in a UL of the RAN slice for the data traffic, a second average over-the-air interface packet delay in the UL of the RAN slice, an average radio link control (RLC) packet delay in the UL of the RAN slice, a first mean number of active UEs in the DL of the RAN slice, a second mean number of active UEs in the UL of the RAN slice, a first maximum number of active UEs in the DL of the RAN slice, a second maximum number of active UEs in the UL of the RAN slice, a packet Uu loss rate in the DL of the RAN slice, or an indication indicating whether the SLA for the RAN slice is non-fulfilled or fulfilled in the second network entity.
The first network entity of claim 9, wherein the processor is configured to receive the second performance information related to the RAN slice by: transmitting a second request for the second performance information via the transceiver to the second network entity, the second request comprising an identifier of the RAN slice and a second measurement object associated with the second performance information; and receiving a second response via the transceiver from the second network entity, the second response comprising the second performance information.
The first network entity of claim 11, wherein the second measurement object comprises at least one of the following: a user equipment (UE) throughput, an average over-the-air interface packet delay, the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) used for data traffic, an average radio link control (RLC) packet delay in an uplink (UL) , the number of active UEs, or a packet Uu loss rate in a downlink (DL) .
The first network entity of claim 9, wherein the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice comprises at least one action to be taken at the second network entity to fulfill the SLA, the at least one action comprising at least one of the following: a resource sharing indication indicating that the RAN slice is allowed to use unused dedicated resources of at least one network slice different from the RAN slice, priority values to achieve scheduling prioritization among network slices with different priorities, each of the priority values being associated with one of the network slices, or dedicated resource allocation percentages for downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) .
The first network entity of claim 1, wherein the first network entity is a target base station.
The first network entity of claim 14, wherein the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice comprises a measurement or prediction of at least one of the following: an indication indicating whether the SLA for the RAN slice is non-fulfilled or fulfilled in a cell of the target base station, a percentage of radio resources used by the RAN slice in the cell, a ratio of the number of fulfilled parameters associated with the SLA to a total number of parameters associated with the SLA in the cell, or load information related to the RAN slice in the cell.
The first network entity of claim 15, wherein the load information related to the RAN slice in the cell comprises at least one of the following: usage of resources for the RAN slice for traffics in downlink, usage of resources for the RAN slice for traffics in uplink, or a ratio of the number of resources in the cell available for the RAN slice to a total number of resources available for the cell.
A second network entity, comprising: a processor; and a transceiver coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to: determine second performance information related to a radio access network (RAN) slice; and transmit, via the transceiver to a first network entity, the second performance information related to the RAN slice, wherein information related to service layer agreement (SLA) for the RAN slice is determined based at least on the second performance information.
The second network entity of claim 17, wherein the processor is further configured to: receive, via the transceiver from the first network entity, the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice.
A method performed by a first network entity, the method comprising: receiving, from a second network entity, second performance information related to a radio access network (RAN) slice; determining, based at least on the second performance information, information related to service layer agreement (SLA) for the RAN slice.
A method performed by a second network entity, the method comprising: determining second performance information related to a radio access network (RAN) slice; and transmitting, to a first network entity, the second performance information related to the RAN slice, wherein information related to service layer agreement (SLA) for the RAN slice is determined based at least on the second performance information.

Description

SUPPORT ASSURANCE OF SLA FOR RAN SLICE TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to wireless communications, and more specifically to an apparatus and a method for supporting assurance of service layer agreement (SLA) for a radio access network (RAN) slice. BACKGROUND A wireless communications system may include one or multiple network communication devices, such as base stations, which may be otherwise known as an eNodeB (eNB) , a next-generation NodeB (gNB) , or other suitable terminology. Each network communication devices, such as a base station may support wireless communications for one or multiple user communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE) , or other suitable terminology. The wireless communications system may support wireless communications with one or multiple user communication devices by utilizing resources of the wireless communication system (e.g., time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, frames, or the like) or frequency resources (e.g., subcarriers, carriers) . Additionally, the wireless communications system may support wireless communications across various radio access technologies including third generation (3G) radio access technology, fourth generation (4G) radio access technology, fifth generation (5G) radio access technology, among other suitable radio access technologies beyond 5G (e.g., sixth generation (6G) ) . A network slice is a logical network that provides specific network capabilities and network characteristics. An operator can deploy multiple network slices delivering different features for the same group of UEs, or the same features but for different groups of UEs, for example, as they deliver a different committed service and/or because they are dedicated to a customer. In the 5G era, the network should support the needs of the business through the several service needs such as data rate, traffic capacity, user density, latency, reliability, and availability. These service needs are always provided based on an SLA for a network slice between a mobile operator and a business customer. Since network slicing is conceived to be an end-to-end feature that includes a core network a transport network and a radio access network, the SLA should be fulfilled at any slice subnet during the lifetime of a network slice, especially at RAN side. Hereinafter, the slice subnet of the network slice at RAN side is also referred to as RAN slice. SUMMARY The present disclosure relates to network entities and methods that support assurance of SLA for a RAN slice at a network entity. The network entities and methods may assure the SLA by dynamically controlling a load of the RAN slice based on information related to the SLA for the RAN slice and prevent possible violations of the SLA. Some implementations of a first network entity described herein may include: receiving, at the first network entity from a second network entity, second performance information related to a RAN slice; determining, based at least on the second performance information, information related to SLA for the RAN slice. In some implementations of the first network entity, the first network entity is further configured to: transmit, via the transceiver to the second network entity, the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice. In some implementations of the first network entity, the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice comprises a measurement or prediction of at least one of the following: an indication indicating whether the SLA for the RAN slice is non-fulfilled or fulfilled, a percentage of radio resources used by the RAN slice, a ratio of the number of fulfilled parameter values associated with the SLA to a total number of parameter values associated with the SLA, or at least one action to be taken at the second network entity to fulfill the SLA. In some implementations of the first network entity, the first network entity is a distributed unit (DU) in a base station and the second network entity is a central unit (CU) in the base station. In some implementations of the first network entity, the first network entity is further configured to determine first performance information related to the RAN slice; and the first network entity is configured to determine the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice by determining the information related to the SLA for the RAN slice based on the first performance information and the second performance information. In some implementations of the first network entity, the first performance information comprises a measurement or prediction of at least one of the following: a downlink (DL) user equipment (UE) throughput of the RAN slice, an uplink (UL) UE throughput of the RAN slice, a first average over-the-air interface packet delay in a DL of the RAN slice, a first number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) used in the DL for data traffic, a second number of PRBs used in a UL of the RAN slice for