Managing bearers in a radio access network

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS) to:

• generate and cause transmission of a bearer setup message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS;
• receive, from the CU-UP, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP;
• and
• generate and cause transmission of a bearer context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS that is to include the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP.

An apparatus to implement a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS), the apparatus comprising:

• interface circuitry to transmit and receive messages;
• and
• processing circuitry, coupled with the interface circuitry, to generate a bearer setup request message and cause the interface circuitry to transmit the bearer setup request message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS;
• receive, from the CU-UP via the interface circuitry, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP;
• and
• generate a user equipment (UE) context setup request message and cause the interface circuitry to transmit the UE context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS, wherein the UE context setup request message comprises the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP.

An apparatus comprising one or more baseband processors coupled to a central processing unit (CPU), the apparatus comprising means for causing a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of a base station (BS) to:

• generate and cause transmission of a bearer setup message to a central-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of the BS;
• receive, from the CU-UP, a bearer setup response message that is to include a transport network layer address (TNLA) and a tunnel endpoint identifier (TEID) for F1 uplink (UL) associated with the CU-UP;
• and
• generate and cause transmission of a bearer context setup request message to a distributed unit (DU) of the BS that is to include the TNLA and TEID for F1 UL associated with the CU-UP, wherein a third message comprises a first TNLA and a first TEID.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a control-unit user-plane (CU-UP) of a base station (BS) to:

• assign a first transport network layer address (TNLA) to one or more general packet radio service tunneling protocol (GTP) tunnels;
• generate and cause transmission of a bearer relocate message to a central-unit control-plane (CU-CP) of the BS, the bearer relocate message comprising the first TNLA;
• and
• receive, from the CU-CP, a bearer relocation acknowledgment message indicating that the first TNLA has replaced a second TNLA.