Description:TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present disclosure relates to a wireless communication system, and more specifically relates to a User Equipment (UE) centric wide area optimization (WAO) method for traffic management and system thereof. The present application is based on and claims priority from US Provisional Application Number 63,072/567 filed on 31/08/2020, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein.

BACKGROUND
[0002] In the present scenario, wireless communications technology has a significant role in making network of modern network infrastructure. The wireless communications technology allows exchange of information over significant distances and refers to all types of voice, data and video transmission. With an increasing demand in the usage of the wireless communications technology, fifth generation (5G) wireless communication technology and fourth generation (4G) wireless communication technology have become a hot spot in modern network industry. In addition, the 5G wireless communication technology and the 4G wireless communication technology supports a plurality of needs. Further, the plurality of needs includes support for higher speed, high bandwidth access, lower latency, organizing network, and highly reliable information interaction. Furthermore, the 5G wireless communication technology supports a variety of vertical industry applications for vehicle networking, emergency communications, Internet of Things (IoT), remotely controlled robots, heterogeneous sensors connections, industrial Internet, and the like. A traffic management implementation in a wireless network provides a higher network performance and decrease in number of unsatisfied users. The traffic management is supposed to be achieved by reducing highly loaded cells in the wireless network. The traffic managementusually monitors cell load values and tries to distribute a traffic of highly loaded cells among less loaded neighbouring cells in the wireless network. The traffic management technique focuses on cell centric customization/optimization, which provides a need for customization/optimization for a UE associated with a specific user and the UE associated with a specific user group priority. Some of the prior art references are given below:
[0003] WO2017018638A1 discloses a method which involves determining a redistribution targets corresponding to a different frequency and comprising cell within which the mobile device can camp on in idle mode. The redistribution factor corresponding to a redistribution target is identified and to move to one of the redistribution targets is determined based on the redistribution factor. The redistribution factor comprises determining whether a redistribution factor is specified for a first cell corresponding to that redistribution target is identified.
[0004] US20090163223A1 discloses a method which involves measuring periodically load capacity of cells overlapping partly within adjacent cells, where a user terminal resides in an overlapping area of the cells. Traffic connections e.g., voice over internet protocol (IP), of the user terminal are differentiated within each cell to two traffic classes based on delay sensitivity of the connections. One of the traffic classes is triggered with lower delay sensitivity before the traffic class is provided with higher delay sensitivity to handle the connection of the user terminal.
[0005] While the prior arts cover various approaches for traffic management methods and systems for traffic management of specific user groups or closes user groups by handoff to different cell. In addition, adjusting load within a cell is based on the QoS classes. Thus, they are only for cell centric customization/optimization. No user/user group priority is utilized for optimization. However, there are no significant considerations to provide QoE aware traffic management method which leverages wide area visibility of RIC across all cells by either performing dynamic handover to a cell within the area or triggering QoS nudging within the cell, without A3 trigger. In light of the above-stated discussion, there is a need to overcome the above stated disadvantages.

OBJECT OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0006] A principal object of the present disclosure is to provide a method and a system for improving quality of service (QoS) or quality of experience (QoE) of a specific user or a specific/priority user group associated with a user equipment (UE) or UEs.
[0007] Another object of the present disclosure is to provide the method and the system for leveraging the wide area visibility at Radio Access network (RAN) Intelligent Controllers (RICs) spanning many cells to achieve the goal.
[0008] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to improve the QoS or QoE of the specific user or the specific/priority user group by moving the UE to a different cell.
[0009] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to improve the QoS or QoE of the specific user and the specific/priority user group by providing dynamic handover from a service cell to another cell even without radio resource control (RRC) event triggers.
[0010] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to improve the QoS or QoE of the specific user and the specific/priority user group using a quality of service (QoS) nudging in a same cell or in a new cell.
[0011] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a user targeted performance boost.
[0012] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to disclose a traffic management for targeted user or user group.
[0013] Yet another object of the present disclosure is to disclose approaches to integrate and utilize perdition or estimation using AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) models based on various metrics from RAN, Core Network and internal or external application servers, wherein the prediction and/estimation includes CQI (channel quality indicator), user performance and mobility, application class and its QoE.

SUMMARY
[0014] Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a method and a system for traffic management for a user equipment (UE) associated with a specific user and a specific/priority user group. The method corresponds to a traffic management method by a radio access network (RAN) controller performing in a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system includes a serving cell, at least two non-serving cells, at least one user equipment (UE) connected to the serving cell. The traffic management method includes a QoS aware handover method and QoS nudging method as a first step to compare one or more UE QoS value and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in a wide area. The one or more handover parameters are based on at least one of a channel quality indicator, a quality of service class indicator, a received signal strength parameter and an average load value. The one or more UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell are compared with the at least two non-serving cells at a predetermined interval. The at least two non-serving cells include one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell. In addition, the traffic management method includes a second step to identify a non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell. The handover is based on the comparison of the one or more the UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells. The identified non-serving cell has a maximum quality of experience (QoE, it focuses on the actual individual user experience: did the network actually deliver a sufficient end-user experience) value among the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area. Further, the traffic management method includes a third step to provide recommendation for the at least one UE. The recommendation includes at least one of handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to an identified non-serving cell and upgrading the at least one UE to a higher QoS class within the serving cell. The recommendation for the is in addition based on a predetermined priority value of the specific user and the specific/priority user group where the priority value is related to the UE Quality of Service (QoS) or Quality of Experience (QoE) requirements or Service Level Agreement (SLA). The traffic management method further includes dynamically performing handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to the identified non-serving cell. The traffic management method further includes identifying the non-serving cell from the at least two non-serving cells. The non-serving cell has the one or more handover parameters in a predefined threshold range. The traffic management method further includes identifying a QoE value required by the at least one UE for a second time period. The second time period corresponds to succeeding time period of a current time. The traffic management method further includes identifying a channel quality for each of the at least two non-serving cells.
[0015] These and other aspects herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the invention herein without departing from the spirit thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES
[0016] The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, throughout which like reference letters indicate corresponding parts in the drawings. The invention herein will be better understood from the following description with reference to the drawings, in which:
[0017] FIG. 1 illustrates an example scenario depicting a user equipment (UE) centric wide area optimization concept.
[0018] FIG. 2 illustrates an example environment in which functions and operations of the UE centric WAO based traffic management application (UE-WAO-TM XApp) with various entities are explained.
[0019] FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a traffic management method for handover and QoS nudging for the user equipment associated with a specific user and a specific/priority user group.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0020] In the following detailed description of the invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that the invention may be practiced with or without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures and components have not been described in details so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the invention.
[0021] Furthermore, it will be clear that the invention is not limited to these alternatives only. Numerous modifications, changes, variations, substitutions and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art, without parting from the scope of the invention.
[0022] The accompanying drawings are used to help easily understand various technical features and it should be understood that the alternatives presented herein are not limited by the accompanying drawings. As such, the present disclosure should be construed to extend to any alterations, equivalents and substitutes in addition to those which are particularly set out in the accompanying drawings. Although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are generally only used to distinguish one element from another.
[0023] The present disclosure achieves a traffic management method and a system for improving a service quality of a user equipment (UE) associated with a specific user and a specific/priority user group. The traffic management method can be used to improve the service quality of the UE using a load balancing technique by moving the UE to a different cell. Alternatively, the traffic management method can be used to improve the service quality of the UE by providing dynamic handover from a serving cell to another cell even without cell level triggers. Alternatively, the traffic management method can be used to improve the service quality of the UE using a quality of service (QoS) in a same cell or in a new cell. Alternatively, the traffic management method can be used to provide a user targeted performance boost. Alternatively, the traffic management method can be used to disclose an MLB for targeted user groups.
[0024] Unlike existing methods, the proposed traffic management method can be used to leverage a wide area visibility of near-RT-RIC and non-RT-RIC across all cells under their control. The proposed traffic management method can be customizable to the UE associated with the specific user and the UE associated with specific/priority user group.
[0025] Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates an example scenario depicting a user equipment (UE) centric wide area optimization concept. Generally, RAN stands for radio access network. The radio access network (RAN) may be a part of a telecommunications system which may connect individual devices to other parts of a network through radio connections. Further, RAN may provide a connection of user equipment such as mobile phone or computer with the core network of the telecommunication systems. Furthermore, RAN may be an essential part of access layer in the telecommunication systems which utilize base stations (such as eNB and gNB) for establishing radio connections.
[0026] In general, Radio Access network (RAN) Intelligent Controller (RIC) (both near real time and non-real time) is capable of monitoring a wide area of cells and take call of load optimization as per a current requirement. With the UE specific wide area optimization, the optimization can be done for the UE associated with a specific user or the UE associated with a specific/priority user group. Further, the RIC determines/checks all the cells in a single view and requests the UE to move to a specific cell for optimization of the UE. The UE specific wide area optimization technique basically takes call of larger optimization by using multiple cell groups. Further, the RIC can also check how it can provide optimized QoS to the UE using concept of QoS nudging. The QoS nudging means, without moving the UE from a loaded cell to a different cell, the QoS is improved. It may be achieved by providing adjusting/compensating resources from a non-priority UE to a priority UE or by managing the QCI/5QI mapping of the UE flows in the LTE/5G network, where QoS Class Identifier (QCI) is a mechanism used in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks to ensure bearer traffic is allocated appropriate and 5QI (5G QoS Identifier) is a pointer to a set of QoS characteristics such as priority level, packet delay or packet error rate, etc.
[0027] Based on the above procedure, the optimization for multiple cells can be done in a single procedure.
[0028] The radio access network (RAN) controller performs the traffic management method in a wireless communication system. The wireless communication system includes the serving cell, at least two non-serving cells, and at least one user equipment (UE) connected to the serving cell. The at least one UE has a predetermined or predefined priority value. In general, wireless communication system may consist of various network components connected via wireless networks. The wireless networks may include of any wireless connectivity technology such as radio links, millimetre wave, and the like.
[0029] In an implementation, the traffic management method may obtain one or more handover parameters of the serving cell and may estimate at least one quality of service (QoS) value of one or more applications at the at least one UE. The at least one quality of service value corresponds to one or more UE key performance indicators (KPIs). The traffic management method may further provide recommendation for traffic management for the at least one UE based on the estimated at least one QoS value, one or more UE requirements and one or more handover parameters of the serving cell.
[0030] The traffic management method may provide recommendation to the at least one UE by comparison of one or more UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area. The at least two non-serving cells may include one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell. The one or more handover parameters are based on at least one of a channel quality indicator (hereinafter referred to as “CQI”) an indicator carrying the information on how good/bad the communication channel quality is, a quality of service (hereinafter referred to as “QoS”) class indicator, a received signal strength parameter, an average load value, and the like.
[0031] The traffic management method may provide recommendation to the at least one UE by identifying a non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells. Thereafter, the traffic management method may provide recommendation for the handover of the at least one UE. The recommendation may include at least one of the handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to an identified non-serving cell and upgrading the at least one UE to a higher QoS class within the serving cell. The recommendation to the at least one UE may be provided by adjusting a QoS class value of the one or more application at the at least one UE. The QoS class value corresponds to a QoS required by an active bearer in the UE to provide a service for the one or more application. The active bearer corresponds to connections between the UE and the packet data network gateway to provide the service.
[0032] Alternatively, the traffic management method may dynamically performing handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to the identified non-serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more UE QoS values and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area. The traffic management may dynamically provide recommendation to the at least one UE for the traffic management of the at least one UE based on the predetermined (or predefined) priority value of the specific user and the specific/priority user group.
[0033] Alternatively, the traffic management method may compare the one or more UE QoS values (or one or more UE QoS/QoE) and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells at a predetermined interval in the wide area. The at least two non-serving cells may include the one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and the one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell. The comparison of the one or more UE QoS (or one or more UE QoS/QoE) and handover parameters of the serving cell and the at least two non-serving cells is performed in parallel. The parallel checking may include checking each of the at least two non-serving cells at a same time period. Further, the non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more UE QoS values (or one or more UE QoS/QoE) and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells is identified. The non-serving cell may have the one or more handover parameters in a predefined threshold range. Furthermore, the identified non-serving cell has a maximum quality of experience (QoE) value among the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area. The recommendation may be provided for QoS and handover of the at least one UE. The recommendation may include at least one of handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to an identified non-serving cell. The non-serving cell may be identified from the at least two non-serving cells and the non-serving cell may have the one or more UE QoS/QoE and handover parameters in the predefined threshold range.
[0034] Alternatively, the traffic management method may provide the recommendation to the at least one UE by upgrading the at least one UE to the higher QoS class within the serving cell, if the at least one UE requires a guaranteed channel quality. Likewise, the traffic management method is used to support the QoS nudging within the serving cell, so that the traffic management method can be used to upgrade the at least one UE to a higher QoS class indicator (QCI)/a fifth generation (5G) quality indicator (5QI) class (i.e., guaranteed bit rate), Allocation/Retention Priority (ARP), Call admission control function, the at least one UE with higher ARP takes precedence during congestion. The ARP determines if there is a higher priority bearer, then the at least one UE may be accepted in the identified non-serving cell.
[0035] Additionally, the traffic management method may identify a QoE value required by the at least one UE for a second time period. The second time period corresponds to succeeding time period of a current time. Further, the traffic management method may provide the recommendation for the traffic management based on the identified QoE value for the second time interval. Furthermore, the traffic management method may identify a channel quality for each of the at least two non-serving cells. The recommendation to the at least one UE for the traffic management (load balancing) is provided based on comparison of the channel quality for each of the at least two non-serving cells. Moreover, the traffic management method may perform wide area checking of each of the at least two non-serving cells to provide handover recommendation for the at least one UE. The wide area checking provides checking of non-serving cells in a predefined geographical area.
[0036] In an implementation, the traffic management method may provide dynamic handover of the at least one UE to the identified non-serving cell even without radio resource control (RRC) event triggers (without relying on A3 events) or due cell level threshold violations. The A3 event is triggered when the identified non-serving cell becomes better than the serving cell by an offset. The serving cell corresponds to primary serving cell of either a Master Cell Group (MCG) or Secondary Cell Group (SCG)). The offset can be either positive or negative.
[0037] In an example, if a first UE in the special group has quality degradation then the traffic management method can be used to identify the nearby cells and try to handover the first UE in a QoS aware manner.
[0038] Alternatively, the traffic management method may be used for targeted user groups. The traffic management method includes receiving a set of inputs. The set of inputs may be, for example but not limited to, a UE identifier (UE-ID), a Network Slice Selection Assistance Information (NSSAI), a Reference Signal Receive Power (hereinafter referred to as “RSRP”)/Reference Signal Receive Quality (hereinafter referred to as “RSRQ”) for the serving cell and the at least two non-serving cells, serving cell CQI in a periodic manner, user performance requirements (e.g., QCI/5QI), current user performance in a periodic manner, physical resource block (PRB) utilization for all cells for all QoS classes in a periodic manner (not user specific). The RSRP is defined as the linear average over the power contributions (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry cell-specific reference signals within considered measurement frequency bandwidth. RSRP may be the power of the LTE Reference Signals spread over the full bandwidth and narrowband.
[0039] Further, the traffic management method includes processing the set of inputs and providing an output. The output can be Quality of Experience (QoE) prediction and target cell for each user in premium/serving groups. For each premium/special group user, the channel quality indicator (CQI) and QoE predictors (based on Artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML) models) are used for each of the at least two non-serving cells.
[0040] The WAO method may be used to utilize resources of other UE’s in the serving cell for boosting performance of the priority UE.
[0041] Alternatively, the traffic management method may be used to interact with the UE centric wide area optimization based traffic management application (herein after referred to as “UE-WAO-TM XApp “300” as shown FIG. 2) for updating a medium access control (MAC) scheduler or the DU by using the set of input. The set of input may be, for example, but not limited to a user group, the RSRP for the serving cell, the RSRQ for the serving cell, Channel Quality Indicator (CQI) for the serving cell in a periodic manner, user performance requirements, current user performance on a periodic basic, and PRB utilization for all cells for all QoS classes on a periodic basis. Further, the traffic management method may be used to process the input and provides an output (i.e., signal to MAC scheduler for boosting user performance, reconfiguration of scheduler policies/parameters, re-mapping of QoS flow to Dedicated Radio Bearer (DRB) with higher QCI/5QI class/ARP.
[0042] FIG. 2 illustrates an example environment 1000 in which functions and operations of the UE centric WAO based traffic management application 300 (herein after referred to as “UE-WAO-TM XApp “300”) with various entities are explained. The environment 1000 includes a non-RT-RIC 100, a near-RT (nRT) Framework 200, the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300, traffic descriptor KPIs 400, and E2 Nodes 500. The UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 is operated with the non-RT-RIC 100, the nRT Framework 200, the traffic descriptor KPIs 400, and the E2 Nodes 500. The E2 nodes 500 are control unit (herein after referred to as “CU”) and distribution/distributed unit (herein after referred to as “DU”). The CU and DU can provide RAN (Radio Access Network) controlling and data plane functionalities for multiple RATs.
[0043] Generally, the near real time RAN Intelligent Controller (near RT RIC) is a logical function that enables near-real-time control and optimization of O-RAN elements and resources via fine-grained data collection and actions over E2 interface. The Non-Real Time Radio Intelligent Controller (non-RT-RIC) is a logical function that enables non-real-time control and optimization of RAN elements and resources, AI/ML workflow including model training and updates, and policy-based guidance of applications/features in near-RT RIC. It is a part of the Service Management and Orchestration Framework and communicates to the near-RT RIC using an A1 interface. Non-RT control functionality (> 1s) and near-Real Time (near-RT) control functions (< 1s) are decoupled in the RIC. The Non-RT functions include service and policy management, RAN analytics and model-training for some of the near-RT RIC functionality, and non-RT RIC optimization. Further, O-CU is O-RAN Central Unit, which is a logical node hosting RRC (Radio Resource Control) protocol, SDAP (Service Data Adaptation Protocol) and PDCP (Packet Data Convergence Protocol). O-CU-CP is O-RAN Central Unit - Control Plane, which is a logical node hosting the RRC and the control plane part of the PDCP protocol. The O-CU-UP is O-RAN Central Unit - User Plane, which is a logical node hosting the user plane part of the PDCP protocol and the SDAP protocol. The O-DU is O-RAN Distributed Unit, which is a logical node hosting RLC/MAC/High-PHY layers based on a lower layer functional split. The O-RU is O-RAN Radio Unit, which is a logical node hosting Low-PHY layer and RF processing based on a lower layer functional split. This is similar to 3GPP's "TRP" or "RRH" but more specific in including the Low-PHY layer (FFT/iFFT, PRACH extraction). An O1 interface is an interface between management entities in Service Management and Orchestration Framework and O-RAN managed elements, for operation and management, by which FCAPS (fault, configuration, accounting, performance, security) management, Software management, File management shall be achieved. The xAPP is an independent software plug-in to the Near-RT RIC platform to provide functional extensibility to the RAN by third parties. The near-RT RIC controller can be provided different functionalities by using programmable modules as xAPPs, from different operators and vendors.
[0044] The nRT Framework 200 includes a policy engine 202, a subscription manager 204, and a KPI monitor XApp 206 that monitors key performance associated with the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300. The subscription manager 204 supports the subscription function of the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300, and a KPI monitor XApp 206. The UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 includes a UE/UE group subscription function controller 302, a UE/UE group policy state controller 304, a UE/UE group WAO control/policy coordination function controller 306, a UE/UE group KPI processing engine 308, and a UE/UE group WAO control/policy function controller 310. The controller includes various logics and programs to perform various tasks based on the requirement.
[0045] Further, the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 also operates with the AI/ML model and an AI/ML traffic classification model. The AI/ML model is used for channel quality prediction, user application identification, and user experience prediction.
[0046] The AI/ML traffic classification model can be located in the near-RT-RIC, the non-RT-RIC 100 or in the E2 nodes 500 depending on the XApp control loop latency requirement. The AI/ML traffic classification model can be an RApp or XApp, hence executed as part of the non-RT-RIC 100 or near-RT-RIC. The RApp is used for the non-RT-RIC 100 and the XApp is used for near-RT-RIC. The RApp and XApp are applications for performing various functions in an open radio access network (RAN) architecture.
[0047] The UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 performs optimized traffic management leveraging the wide area visibility at RICs. Alternatively, the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 obtains traffic management information (e.g., UE Ids, service-level agreement (SLA) from the policy engine 202 for the designated groups (e.g., a premium group) of users to be managed.
[0048] The UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 subscribes to the required measurements from the E2 nodes 500. The subscription is related to user specific measurements like RSRP/RSRQ from the serving cell and the at least two non-serving cells, current uplink/downlink (UL/DL) user plane performance metrics (e.g., throughput and latency), cell wide measurements like UL/DL PRB utilizations by QCI/5QI classes, where performance metrics includes estimated QoS/QoE and handover parameters.
[0049] The UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 is configured to provide recommendations to the E2 nodes 500 that may include handover for a user to the at least two non-serving cells, the QoS nudging for the at least one UE (e.g., modification in ARP/QCI(5QI) level(s) and/or MAC scheduling parameters.
[0050] The UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 is used with the AI/ML application for predicting the CQI using information like RSRP/RSRQ, user plane performance and user mobility and for identifying current user application and its QoE predictions (both currently and after the recommended control action) using information like user eRAB/DRB ID and user plane traffic profile and performance.
[0051] At step 1, the non-RT-RIC 100 sets one or more policy in the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300. The one or more policy includes the UE-ID or UE group (i.e., NSSAI) that needs to be monitored, a service type, and an SLA requirement in terms of the QoS performance targets. The service type can be, for example, but not limited to an application level descriptor, 5 tuples or the like. The QoS performance targets can be, for example, but not limited to QCI/5QI, throughput, latency, PLR, or the like.
[0052] At step 2, the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 creates the policy states for each UE or UE group in a UE/UE-Group policy state function using a UE/UE-Group policy state function controller 304.
[0053] At step 3, depending on the policy requirements, the UE/UE group WAO control/policy function subscribes to KPIs periodically or requests a report based on satisfaction of certain trigger conditions in the E2 nodes 500 through a subscription function using a UE/UE group WAO control/policy function controller 310 and the UE/UE group KPI processing engine 308.
[0054] The UE level metrics may include RRC KPIs that include RSRP/RSRQ/SINR and RRC event reports and KPIs from a Centralized unit user plane (CU-UP) and distributed unit (DU) level, which include performance related ones such as DRB level DL/UL and UL/DL Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) throughput, DL/UL DRB level and PDCP level packet loss, DL/UL DRB level and PDCP packet latency.
[0055] The cell level KPIs include aggregate UL/DL cell level throughput/packet loss/latency metrics, also per QCI/5QI level aggregate throughput/loss/latency metrics, and maximum number of UE’s per QCI/5QI etc.
[0056] The traffic descriptor KPIs 400 include metrics that used to identify a particular flow belonging to a given service. The traffic descriptor KPIs 400 may include application level information, 5 tuple information and associated DRB-ID (if available). The application level information can be, for example, but not limited to a UE-ID, Hash-IDs, packet length, inter-arrival interval, and 5QI/CQI etc.
[0057] In case, if the UE-ID/DRB-ID is not determined yet, then the traffic descriptor KPIs 400 is used by the application prediction function in the non-RT-RIC 100 detects the services of interest based on the UE policy, and obtains the DRB-ID. Else, the policies can be set in the traffic classification function in the E2 nodes 500 to determine the UE/DRB-ID, which can be used by the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 to monitor flows belonging to UEs of interest.
[0058] At step 4, the WAO function, based on the policy requirements, may also issue certain UE/UE-group related policy procedures along with event triggers to enforce QCI/5QI performance requirements at the CU-UP and DU level using the UE/UE group WAO control/policy function controller 310.
[0059] The steps 1-4 described herein may have fewer or additional steps or states and the steps or states may be performed in a different order or same order. Also, not all the steps 1-4 are needed to be processed essentially. The method may skip one or more steps.
[0060] At step 5, the subscribed KPIs are aggregated and processed by a KPI-Mon framework function from which it is either pushed to or pulled by the UE KPI processing engine (not shown). Further, in step 5 the AI/ML enabled RApps or xApps are used to provide inputs of channel quality prediction, the user application identification, and the user experience prediction to the WAO XApp.
[0061] At step 6, a subset of KPIs is used by the control/policy algorithm function to invoke prediction functions for the service being monitored using the UE/UE group WAO control/policy function controller 310. The traffic descriptors can be used as input by the AI/ML application predictor in the non-RT-RIC 100 to map to the services to specific DRBs. Further, the traffic predictor in the E2 nodes 500 can be employed to predict the service type and map to the DRB ID in the E2 nodes 500. Further, the prediction function may be called once during the UE-WAO-TM XApp 300 initialization procedure or whenever there is a policy change to monitor new services.
[0062] The WAO control/policy function uses the KPI and the DRB information to monitor the SLA requirements, and if the WAO control/policy function observes QoS degradation for the UEs or the UE-group, it considers certain control actions (Handover or QoS Policies). Further, the performance prediction functions are invoked for evaluating the impact of the control actions of the channel quality.
[0063] For each of the at least one UE, the AI/ML channel quality predictor enables channel prediction to other target cells using the at least one UE related identified non-serving cell power related KPIs and mobility statistics. The channel prediction is used by the algorithm function to determine the resource requirement based on SLA requirements, based on which the target cell(s) can be predicted.
[0064] Further, the performance prediction function uses UE’s performance KPIs along with the considered control actions (handover to the identified non-serving cell or QoS class level changes) to estimate the change in the user satisfaction level. Based on the feedback from the QoE prediction function, the Algorithm function then determines the set of RAN function related control actions to be invoked in the E2 nodes 500.
[0065] At step 7, the UE coordination function is used by the UE/UE group WAO control/policy coordination function controller 306 to coordinate the input and output responses from the above discussed prediction components.
[0066] The at least one UE may be, for example, but not limited to a cellular phone, a smart phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) dongle, an Internet of Things (IoT), a virtual reality device, an immersive system, or the like.
[0067] A processor is configured to execute instructions stored in a memory and to perform various processes. A communicator is configured for communicating internally between internal hardware components and with external devices via one or more networks. The memory also stores instructions to be executed by the processor.
[0068] FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart 3000 of the traffic management method for the at least one UE associated with the specific user and the specific/priority user group. It may be noted that in order to explain the method steps of the flowchart 3000, references will be made to the elements explained in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.
[0069] At step 3002, the traffic management method includes obtaining the one or more handover parameters of the serving cell. At step 3004, the traffic management method includes estimating the at least one quality of service (QoS) value of the one or more applications at the at least one UE. The at least one quality of service value corresponds to the one or more UE key performance indicators (KPIs). At step 3006, the traffic management method includes providing recommendation for traffic management for the at least one UE based on the estimated at least one QoS value, one or more UE requirements and one or more handover parameters of the serving cell.
[0070] It may be noted that the flowchart 3000 is explained to have above stated process steps; however, those skilled in the art would appreciate that the flowchart 3000 may have more/less number of process steps which may enable all the above stated implementations of the present disclosure.
[0071] Advantageously, the present disclosure helps achieving more scalability using AI/ML models and efficient usage of cell resources in the wide area. Further, user centric approach for QoS management is customizable to premium/special user groups. Furthermore, with technique of the present disclosure, no need to depend on A3 event triggering for handover or QoS nudging.
[0072] The various actions, acts, blocks, steps, or the like in the flow chart may be performed in the order presented, in a different order or simultaneously. Further, in some implementations, some of the actions, acts, blocks, steps, or the like may be omitted, added, modified, skipped, or the like without departing from the scope of the invention.
[0073] The embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented using at least one software program running on at least one hardware device and performing network management functions to control the elements.
[0074] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention. While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one of ordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within the scope of the invention. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary, with the true scope of the invention being indicated by the claims.
[0075] The methods and processes described herein may have fewer or additional steps or states and the steps or states may be performed in a different order. Not all steps or states need to be reached. The methods and processes described herein may be embodied in, and fully or partially automated via, software code modules executed by one or more general purpose computers. The code modules may be stored in any type of computer-readable medium or other computer storage device. Some or all of the methods may alternatively be embodied in whole or in part in specialized computer hardware.
[0076] The results of the disclosed methods may be stored in any type of computer data repository, such as relational databases and flat file systems that use volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., magnetic disk storage, optical storage, EEPROM and/or solid state RAM).
[0077] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, routines, and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. The described functionality can be implemented in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the disclosure.
[0078] Moreover, the various illustrative logical blocks and modules described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented or performed by a machine, such as a general purpose processor device, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor device can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor device can be a controller, microcontroller, or state machine, combinations of the same, or the like. A processor device can include electrical circuitry configured to process computer-executable instructions. In another embodiment, a processor device includes an FPGA or other programmable device that performs logic operations without processing computer-executable instructions. A processor device can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration. Although described herein primarily with respect to digital technology, a processor device may also include primarily analog components. A computing environment can include any type of computer system, including, but not limited to, a computer system based on a microprocessor, a mainframe computer, a digital signal processor, a portable computing device, a device controller, or a computational engine within an appliance, to name a few.
[0079] The elements of a method, process, routine, or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor device, or in a combination of the two. A software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. An exemplary storage medium can be coupled to the processor device such that the processor device can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to the processor device. The processor device and the storage medium can reside in an ASIC. The ASIC can reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor device and the storage medium can reside as discrete components in a user terminal.
[0080] Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, "can," "may," "might," "may," “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain alternatives include, while other alternatives do not include, certain features, elements and/or steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required for one or more alternatives or that one or more alternatives necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without other input or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are included or are to be performed in any particular alternative. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “having,” and the like are synonymous and are used inclusively, in an open-ended fashion, and do not exclude additional elements, features, acts, operations, and so forth. Also, the term “or” is used in its inclusive sense (and not in its exclusive sense) so that when used, for example, to connect a list of elements, the term “or” means one, some, or all of the elements in the list.
[0081] Disjunctive language such as the phrase “at least one of X, Y, Z,” unless specifically stated otherwise, is otherwise understood with the context as used in general to present that an item, term, etc., may be either X, Y, or Z, or any combination thereof (e.g., X, Y, and/or Z). Thus, such disjunctive language is not generally intended to, and should not, imply that certain alternatives require at least one of X, at least one of Y, or at least one of Z to each be present.
[0082] While the detailed description has shown, described, and pointed out novel features as applied to various alternatives, it can be understood that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the devices or algorithms illustrated can be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure. As can be recognized, certain alternatives described herein can be embodied within a form that does not provide all of the features and benefits set forth herein, as some features can be used or practiced separately from others.

Claims:CLAIMS

We Claim:
1. A traffic management method by a radio access network (RAN) controller performing in a wireless communication system, wherein the wireless communication system comprising a serving cell, at least two non-serving cells, and at least one user equipment (UE) connected to the serving cell, the at least one UE having a predefined priority value, the traffic management method comprising:
obtaining one or more handover parameters of the serving cell;
estimating at least one quality of service (QoS) value of one or more applications at the at least one UE, the at least one quality of service value corresponds to one or more UE key performance indicators (KPIs);
providing recommendation for traffic management for the at least one UE based on the estimated at least one QoS value, one or more UE requirements and one or more handover parameters of the serving cell.
2. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of recommendation to the at least one UE further comprising:
comparing one or more UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in a wide area, wherein the at least two non-serving cells comprises one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell;
identifying a non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells; and
providing recommendation for the handover of the at least one UE, wherein the recommendation comprises at least one of the handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to an identified non-serving cell.
3. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of recommendation to the at least one UE further comprising:
adjusting a QoS class value of the one or more application at the at least one UE, the QoS class value corresponds to a QoS required by an active bearer in the UE to provide a service for the one or more application, the active bearer corresponds to connections between the UE and the packet data network gateway to provide the service.
4. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the one or more handover parameters are based on at least one of a channel quality indicator, a quality of service class indicator, a received signal strength parameter, and an average load value.
5. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of the recommendation further comprising:
dynamically performing handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to the identified non-serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more UE QoS values and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area.
6. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of recommendation further comprising:
comparing the one or more UE QoS values and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells at a predetermined interval.
7. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of recommendation to the at least one UE further comprising:
comparing the one or more UE QoS values and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area, wherein the at least two non-serving cells comprises one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell;
identifying a non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more UE QoS values and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells; and
providing recommendation for QoS and handover of the at least one UE, wherein the recommendation comprises at least one of handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to an identified non-serving cell,
wherein the comparing of the one or more UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell and the at least two non-serving cells is performed in parallel, the parallel checking comprises checking each of the at least two non-serving cells at a same time period.
8. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of recommendation for the at least one UE further comprising:
comparing one or more UE QoS/QoE and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area, wherein the at least two non-serving cells comprises one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell;
identifying a non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells; and
providing recommendation for handover of the at least one UE, wherein the recommendation comprises at least one of handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell to an identified non-serving cell, wherein the non-serving cell is identified from the at least two non-serving cells, wherein the non-serving cell has the one or more UE QoS/QoE and handover parameters in a predefined threshold range.
9. The traffic management method of claim 1, wherein the providing of recommendation to the at least one UE further comprising:
comparing one or more UE QoS/QoE and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area, wherein the at least two non-serving cells comprises one or more cells adjacent to the serving cell and one or more cells non-adjacent to the serving cell;
identifying a non-serving cell capable of taking handover of the at least one UE from the serving cell based on the comparison of the one or more UE QoS and handover parameters of the serving cell with the at least two non-serving cells, wherein the identified non-serving cell has a maximum quality of experience (QoE) value among the at least two non-serving cells in the wide area.
10. The traffic management method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a QoE value required by the at least one UE for a second time period, wherein the second time period corresponds to succeeding time period of a current time; and
providing the recommendation for the traffic management based on the identified QoE value for the second time interval.
11. The traffic management method of claim 1 further comprising identifying a channel quality for each of the at least two non-serving cells, wherein the recommendation to the at least one UE for the traffic management is provided based on comparison of the channel quality for each of the at least two non-serving cells.
12. The traffic management method of claim 1 further comprising performing wide area checking of each of the at least two non-serving cells to provide handover recommendation for the at least one UE, the wide area checking provides checking of non-serving cells in a predefined geographical area.