EP-4740574-A1 - METHODS FOR MOBILITY MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTE ACTIVITY OFFLOADING IN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS

EP4740574A1EP 4740574 A1EP4740574 A1EP 4740574A1EP-4740574-A1

Abstract

Various solutions for mobility management of compute activity offloading in mobile communications are described. An apparatus hosting a composition management function (CMF) may transmit a relocation indication to a source compute server function (CSF). The relocation indication indicates a relocation of a compute offload point associated with a client device from the source CSF to a target CSF. The apparatus may receive a confirmation indication from the source CSF or the target CSF. The confirmation indication indicates that the relocation of the compute offload point is completed. The apparatus may transmit a first instruction to the client device. The first instruction indicates a transfer of a compute offload activity of the client device from the source CSF to the target CSF.

Inventors

TENNY, NATHAN EDWARD
SHARIAT, MEHRDAD

Assignees

MediaTek Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260513
Application Date: 20240617

Claims (20)

A method, comprising: transmitting, by a processor of an apparatus hosting a composition management function (CMF) , a relocation indication to a source compute server function (CSF) , wherein the relocation indication indicates a relocation of a compute offload point associated with a client device from the source CSF to a target CSF; receiving, by the processor, a confirmation indication from the source CSF or the target CSF, wherein the confirmation indication indicates that the relocation of the compute offload point is completed; and transmitting, by the processor, a first instruction to the client device, wherein the first instruction indicates a transfer of a compute offload activity of the client device from the source CSF to the target CSF.
The method of Claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the processor, whether to trigger the transmission of the relocation indication based on at least one of the following: a performance monitoring of the compute offload activity between the client device and the source CSF; a load balancing between the source CSF and the target CSF; and a mobility event associated with a radio connection of the client device.
The method of Claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, an acknowledgement of the first instruction from the client device.
The method of Claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the processor, an admission query to the target CSF, wherein the admission query indicates a request for admission of the compute offload activity of the client device; and receiving, by the processor, an admission confirmation from the target CSF, wherein the admission confirmation indicates that the request for admission of the compute offload activity of the client device is accepted.
The method of Claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the processor, a release indication to the source CSF, wherein the release indication indicates the source CSF to release a compute context of the client device.
The method of Claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, by the processor, a second instruction to the client device, wherein the second instruction indicates the client device to transmit the compute offload activity to the target CSF.
The method of Claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises a network node or a mobile device.
A method, comprising: receiving, by a processor of an apparatus hosting a compute server function (CSF) , a relocation indication from a composition management function (CMF) in an event that the CSF is a source CSF, wherein the relocation indication indicates a relocation of a compute offload point associated with a client device from the source CSF to a target CSF; and transmitting, by the processor, a confirmation indication to the CMF in an event that the CSF is the source CSF or the targe CSF, wherein the confirmation indication indicates that the relocation of the compute offload point is completed.
The method of Claim 8, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, an admission query from the CMF in an event that the CSF is the target CSF, wherein the admission query indicates a request for admission of the compute offload activity of the client device; and transmitting, by the processor, an admission confirmation to the CMF in an event that the CSF is the target CSF, wherein the admission confirmation indicates that the request for admission of the compute offload activity of the client device is accepted.
The method of Claim 8, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a release indication from the CMF in an event that the CSF is the source CSF, wherein the release indication indicates the source CSF to release a compute context of the client device.
The method of Claim 8, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a compute context of the client device from the source CSF in an event that the CSF is the target CSF; and transmitting, by the processor, an acceptance indication of the compute context to the source CSF in an event that the CSF is the target CSF.
The method of Claim 8, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a compute offload activity of the client device from the client device in an event that the CSF is the source CSF; forwarding, by the processor, a copy of the compute offload activity to the target CSF in an event that the CSF is the source CSF; and transmitting, by the processor, a result of the compute offload activity to the client device in an event that the CSF is the source CSF.
The method of Claim 8, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a compute offload activity of the client device from the client device in an event that the CSF is the target CSF; transmitting, by the processor, a result of the compute offload activity to the client device in an event that the CSF is the source CSF; and transmitting, by the processor, the result of the compute offload activity to the client device in an event that the CSF is the target CSF.
The method of Claim 13, wherein the result of the compute offload activity from the source CSF is transmitted via a first radio node, the result of the compute offload activity from the target CSF is transmitted via a second radio node, and the transmissions of the result of the compute offload activity are scheduled based on a scheduling coordination information negotiated between the first radio node and the second radio node.
The method of Claim 8, wherein the apparatus comprises a network node or a mobile device.
A method, comprising: transmitting, by a processor of a client device, a compute offload activity to a source compute server function (CSF) ; and receiving, by the processor, a first instruction from a composition management function (CMF) , wherein the first instruction indicates a transfer of the compute offload activity from the source CSF to a target CSF.
The method of Claim 16, further comprising: transmitting, by the processor, an acknowledgement of the first instruction to the CMF.
The method of Claim 16, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a second instruction from the CMF, wherein the second instruction indicates the client device to transmit the compute offload activity to the target CSF, and the first instruction comprises an instruction to stop transmitting the compute offload activity to the source CSF.
The method of Claim 16, further comprising: receiving, by the processor, a result of the compute offload activity from at least one of the source CSF and the target CSF.
The method of Claim 19, wherein the result of the compute offload activity from the source CSF is received via a first radio node, the result of the compute offload activity from the target CSF is received via a second radio node, and the transmissions of the result of the compute offload activity are scheduled based on a scheduling coordination information negotiated between the first radio node and the second radio node.

Description

METHODS FOR MOBILITY MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTE ACTIVITY OFFLOADING IN MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION (S) The present disclosure is part of a non-provisional application claiming the priority benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/511,912, filed 5 July 2023, the content of which herein being incorporated by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure is generally related to mobile communications and, more particularly, to mobility management of compute activity offloading in mobile communications. BACKGROUND Unless otherwise indicated herein, approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims listed below and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section. In a mobile communication environment, a mobile device such as a user equipment (UE) may be provided with radio connectivity by one or more radio nodes. The radio nodes may include base station (s) (BS) of a wireless network, and/or peer mobile device (s) (e.g., other UEs) . The radio nodes may provide connectivity for the mobile device to obtain mobile services, including services offered by an operator’s network (which may include a radio access network (RAN) and/or a core network (CN) ) , services offered by remote network nodes such as Internet nodes or servers in a cloud environment, and/or services offered by one or more peer devices. In some cases, services offered to the mobile device may be computationally demanding, and there are diverse circumstances in which it is beneficial for the mobile device to be able to offload some compute activities/tasks to other nodes in the wireless system. Such nodes with the capacity to accept offloaded compute activity may be referred to as compute servers, and the mobile device may be referred to as a client device. Each compute server may include an actual server (e.g., a computational engine that performs offloaded tasks) as well as logically separate aspects such as a function that exposes an interface between the server and the wireless system (i.e., such a function may serve as a communication point between the server and the wireless system. For example, the mobile device may operate a user-facing service with computational demands that exceed what the mobile device can provide efficiently due to various reasons, such as the limitations in the compute power and/or battery reserves of the mobile device, the user preference, and/or the network policy on compute offload preferences, etc. Some parts of the service may require very low-latency computation, giving rise to tasks that should be performed at a node topologically close to the mobile device, such as a server located at a distributed unit (DU) of the BS serving the mobile device, or another device (e.g., a peer device) with a direct radio link (e.g., sidelink (SL) ) to the mobile device. Some parts of the service may give rise to tasks that are computationally demanding but less latency-sensitive, which may be performed at a node topologically further from the mobile device but having high computational capabilities, such as a server located at a centralized unit (CU) of the BS serving the mobile device, or a server in the CN, etc. Some parts of the service may require computation that can conveniently be performed by the mobile device itself without offloading, while other parts of the service may benefit from computation at a central location such as a server in the cloud. That is to say, a single service may involve compute tasks that can productively be performed at diverse locations throughout the system. However, a challenge for compute activity offloading is that in case of occurrence of a mobility event associated with the client device’s radio connection (e.g., a handover of the client device from one radio node to another) , there may need proper coordination of the compute offload activities among compute servers. SUMMARY The following summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be limiting in any way. That is, the following summary is provided to introduce concepts, highlights, benefits and advantages of the novel and non-obvious techniques described herein. Select implementations are further described below in the detailed description. Thus, the following summary is not intended to identify essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for use in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter. One objective of the present disclosure is proposing schemes, concepts, designs, systems, methods and/or apparatus pertaining to mobility management of compute activity offloading in mobile communications. It is believed that the above-described issue would be avoided or otherwise alleviated by implementing one or more of the proposed schemes described herein. In one aspect, a method may involve an apparatus, which hosts a composition management function (CMF) , transmitting a relocation indication to a so