# US 11,444,850 B2 · Method and apparatus for communication network quality of service capability exposure

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 11,444,850 B2
- Document ID: US11444850B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 15/582,623
- Filed: 2017-04-29
- Published: 2017-11-02
- Granted: 2022-09-13
- Earliest claimed: 2016-05-02
- Assignees: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Ngoc Dung Dao; Xu Li
- Inventors: Ngoc Dung Dao; Xu Li
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11444850B2

## CPC

- H04L 41/5012: {determining service availability, e.g. which services are available at a certain point in time}
- H04L 41/5009: Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
- H04W 28/24: Negotiating SLA [Service Level Agreement]; Negotiating QoS [Quality of Service]
- H04L 41/5025: by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade
- H04L 41/5087: {wherein the managed service relates to voice services (management of VoIP services H04M7/0081)}
- H04L 41/509: {wherein the managed service relates to media content delivery, e.g. audio, video or TV}
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

A method and system for providing access to Quality of Service levels from within a network to entities outside of the network.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for managing an ongoing data flow based on a quality of service (QoS) policy, the method comprising:
monitoring, by a radio access network (RAN) node, an ongoing condition of radio resources of the RAN node for the on-going data flow;
responsive to the monitoring, on condition that there is a change of the ongoing condition, determining, by the RAN node, whether a QoS parameter can be supported, the QoS parameter being associated with an effective flow bit rate for the ongoing data flow;
on condition that the effective flow bit rate cannot be supported, informing, by the RAN node, a control plane of an inability to guarantee the effective flow bit rate;
wherein the control plane including a network exposure interface function including interfaces for exchanging information with an external application server (AS), the method further comprising:
determining, by the network exposure interface function, network capability information upon receiving a change notification of the change in the QoS parameter; and
sending, by the network exposure interface function, the network capability information based on the received change notification to the AS;
upon receiving the network capability information, the AS selecting a transport protocol and protocol parameters for the on-going data flow of at least one network service based on the received network capability information.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network capability information comprises at least one of:
an assigned quality of service (QoS) parameter associated with a data flow between where the application server is located and a user equipment (UE);
a UE mobility context of the UE; and
a QoS label for a data flow of the network service; and wherein:
the QoS label comprises a priority level label attachable to packets of data flows between the application server and the UE; and
the network exposure interface function further exposes, for the on-going data flow, at least one of:
a mean data rate;
a minimum data rate;
a maximum data rate;
an effective data rate;
a packet delay limit; and
a packet loss rate.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method as claimed in claim 1, the control plane including the network exposure interface function and a policy control function (PCF), the method further comprising:
sending, by the AS to the control plane via the network exposure interface function, the selected transport protocol and protocol parameter; determining, by the control plane, how to handle the data flow based on the selected transport protocol and protocol parameters.

### Claim 4

A communication system comprising:
a radio access network (RAN) node and a control plane, wherein
the RAN node comprises at least one processor operatively coupled to a corresponding set of memory components which include stored program instructions for execution by the at least one processor such that the RAN node is configured to:
monitor an ongoing condition of radio resources of the RAN node for an on-going data flow,
in response to the monitoring, determine, on condition that there is a change of the ongoing condition, whether a QoS parameter can be supported, the QoS parameter being associated with an effective flow bit rate for the ongoing data flow; and
on condition that the QoS parameter cannot be supported, inform the control plane, via a first network interface enabling communications between the RAN node and the control plane, of an inability to guarantee the new QoS parameter;
the control plane comprises at least one processor operatively coupled to a corresponding set of memory components which include stored program instructions for execution by the at least one processor such that the control plane is configured to:
obtain information being informed by the RAN node;
and expose such information to an application server;
the control plane including a network exposure interface function including interfaces for exchanging information with an external application server (AS), the network exposure interface function configured for:
determining, by the network exposure interface function, network capability information upon receiving a change notification of the change in the QoS parameter; and
sending, by the network exposure interface function, the network capability information based on the received change notification to the AS;
and the AS configured for: upon receiving the network capability information, the AS selecting a transport protocol and protocol parameters for the on-going data flow of at least one network service based on the received network capability information.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to the monitoring, receiving, by the RAN node, an effective flow bit rate of a data flow from a control plan function for the RAN node to monitor.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the on-going data flow is between an application server and a user equipment (UE).

### Claim 7 (depends on 4)

The communication system as claimed in claim 4, the control plane including at least one processor operatively coupled to a corresponding set of memory components which include stored program instructions for execution by the at least one processor to implement a network exposure interface function, wherein
the network exposure interface function is configured to determine network capability information upon receiving a change notification of the change in the network condition, and send the network capability information based on the received change notification to an application server via a fourth network interface enabling communications between the network exposure interface function and the application server.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The communication system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the application server comprises at least one processor operatively coupled to a corresponding set of memory components which include stored program instructions for execution by the at least one processor, the application server being for configuring the application server to:
receive the network capability information; and
select a transport protocol and protocol parameters for a data flow of at least one network service based on the received network capability information.

### Claim 9 (depends on 8)

The communication system as claimed in claim 8, wherein
the control plane including at least one processor operatively coupled to a corresponding set of memory components which include stored program instructions for execution by the at least one processor to implement a network exposure interface function
the application server is further configured to send the selected transport protocol and protocol parameter to the control plane via the network exposure interface function; and
the control plane being further configured to determine how to handle the data flow based on the selected transport protocol and protocol parameters.

### Claim 10 (depends on 4)

The communication system of claim 4 wherein the on-going data flow is between where an application server is located and a user equipment (UE).

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, by the control plane, information informed by the RAN node; and
sending, by the control plane, the information to another function.

### Claim 12 (depends on 11)

The method of claim 11, wherein the another function is an application server (AS), the method further comprising:
receiving, by the control plane, from the AS server, updated transport protocol parameters for the on-going data flow; and
updating, by the RAN node, the on-going data flow based on the updated transport protocol parameters.

### Claim 13 (depends on 7)

The communication system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the network capabilities information comprises at least one of:
at least one assigned quality of service (QoS) parameter for at least one data flow of at least one network service between where the application server is located and a user equipment (UE);
a UE mobility context of the UE; and
at least one QoS label for individual data flows of the at least one data flow of the at least one network service.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The communication system as claimed in claim 13, wherein:
the QoS label comprises a priority level label attachable to packets of data flows between the application server and the UE; and
the network exposure interface function further exposes, for the on-going data flow, at least one of:
a mean data rate;
a minimum data rate;
a maximum data rate;
an effective data rate;
a packet delay limit; and
a packet loss rate.