Bearer-less architecture for a wireless cellular network
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsAlexandre Stojanovski, Muthaiah Venkatachalam, Richard Burbidge
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An architecture, for a cellular communications system, is described herein in which a “bearer-less” model is used for both the radio interface and the network core. Instead of using an individual Layer 2 bearer for each Quality of Service (QoS) class, in the architecture described herein, a common Layer 2 connection (e.g., a Layer 2 “fat pipe”) may be used to handle traffic flows between a User Equipment (UE) device and an external Packet Data Network (PDN). Additionally, a bearer-less architecture may be used in the radio interface (i.e., between User Equipment (UE) and the eNB).
Claims18
An apparatus comprising:
- processing circuitry configured to:
- generate a request to establish a connection with a packet data network (PDN);
- process a resource request, associated with the PDN, to determine:
- an indication of a Service Data Flow (SDF) associated with the resource request, and
- Quality of Service (QoS) information for packets in the SDF;
- and
- a transceiver configured to communicate with a Base Station (BS), via a particular radio bearer established between the UE and the BS, the communication including:
- multiplexing transmission of packets corresponding to a plurality of different SDFs over the particular radio bearer, the multiplexing including scheduling the packets of the plurality of different SDFs based on the corresponding QoS information for each of the plurality of different SDFs, wherein multiplexing the transmission of packets includes multiplexing Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) packets and non-GBR Unacknowledged Mode Radio Link Control (UM RLC) packets on the particular radio bearer.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- generate a request to establish a connection with a packet data network (PDN);
- receive, from a Base Station (BS) or from a control plane process associated with the cellular communication network, an indication of:
- a Service Data Flow (SDF), and
- Quality of Service (QoS) information for packets in the SDF;
- and
- communicate with the BS, via a particular radio bearer established between the UE and the BS, the communication including scheduling transmission of packets, corresponding to a plurality of different SDFs over the particular radio bearer, wherein a first SDF of the plurality of different SDFs is associated with Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) packets and a second SDF of the plurality of different SDFs is associated with non-GBR Unacknowledged Mode Radio Link Control (UM RLC) packets, wherein the GBR and the non-GBR UM RLC packets are multiplexed over the particular radio bearer.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:
- process a request, received from User Equipment (UE), to establish a connection with a packet data network (PDN);
- and
- configure user plane nodes, in the cellular communication network, to support the requested PDN connection, the configuring of the user plane nodes including establishing, for the UE, a single common Layer 2 connection between a serving Base Station (BS) and the PDN, wherein the single common Layer 2 connection between the BS and the PDN is configured to carry both Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) packets and non-GBR Unacknowledged Mode Radio Link Control (UM RLC) packets related to the UE, wherein the GBR and the non-GBR UM RLC packets are multiplexed over a particular radio bearer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.