System and apparatus for programmable virtualization and optimization of aggregated wireless radio access technologies

• US 10,548,027 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2017
• Issued: 01/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Netsia, Inc. (Levent Yapilandirma Yönetimi Telekomünikasyon AS)
• Original Assignee: Netsia, Inc. (Levent Yapilandirma Yönetimi Telekomünikasyon AS)
• Inventors: Sunay, Mehmet Oguz, Ercan, Ali Ozer
• Primary Examiner(s): Aung, Sai
• Application Number:
  US15/849,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20180176800A1
• Time in Patent Office: 769 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/245 Link aggregation, e.g. trunking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/42 Centralised routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/745 Reaction in network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/805 QOS or priority aware
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/04 based on wireless node resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/12 based on transmission quality or channel quality
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/04 Wireless resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/06 adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals

Abstract

User equipments (UEs) that have multiple radio access technologies (RATs) are grouped together so that each group may be subjected to its own set of medium access (MAC) protocols for each RAT, while a flow destined for a UE may be communicated via one or multiple aggregated RAT interfaces on the said UE. The network operator or service provider that serves a plurality of subscribers defines a service group for said plurality of subscribers and controls the corresponding virtualized MACs for the said service group.

Claims

1. A system for programmable virtualization and joint optimization of wireless link aggregation in a wireless network comprising:

a plurality of user equipment (UEs), each UE having a plurality of unique radio access technologies (RAT) interfaces, each unique RAT interface associated with a unique RAT technology and each unique RAT interface served by a corresponding RAT base station (RAT BS), said plurality of UEs being part of one or more service groups, each service group having a set of different service characteristics;

a radio access network (RAN) controller performing network virtualization by invoking, configuring, and controlling parameters of a virtual Medium Access Control (vMAC) for each service group at all RAT BSs, each vMAC allocated to serve one service group;

wherein for each service group, the RAN controller performs joint optimization of vMAC configurations across all RAT BSs for wireless resources allocated to each vMAC and determining data flow splitting between the plurality of RAT interfaces of each UE within each service group, and

wherein the number of unique RAT interfaces is greater than or equal to two, and wherein a first base station (IBS) is associated with the first RAT interface, the IBS;

(a) receiving incoming traffic, (b) splitting incoming traffic into n flows, and (c) forwarding (n−

1) flows to remaining (n−

1) RAT BSs, and wherein received n flows from n RAT BSs are merged into one flow at the UE.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the RAN controller also periodically collects information from both BSs and UEs in order to be able to perform the joint optimization, the periodically collected information comprising any of, or a combination of, the following:

link quality, signal strength/quality indicator, instantaneous traffic loads, instantaneous traffic rates.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the RAN controller also periodically collects information from both BSs and UEs in order to be able to perform the joint optimization, the periodically collected information comprising any of, or a combination of, the following:

link quality, signal strength/quality indicator, instantaneous traffic loads, instantaneous traffic rates.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein using service group attributes and periodically collected information from BSs and UEs, the RAN controller performs joint optimization for the following:

(a) optimal resource allocation for each service group in a first RAT interface, (b) optimal resource allocation and/or other vMAC properties for each service group in a second RAT interface, and (c) optimal way of splitting data between the first RAT interface and the second RAT interface.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the service group attributes comprises any of the following:

priority, equipment capabilities, assigned users to service groups, used user scheduling algorithms, admission control policy, QoS requirements, and used RAN control algorithms.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the periodically collected information from BSs and UEs comprises any of the following:

link qualities, signal strengths, instantaneous/expected loads, and instantaneous/expected flow rates.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein a percentage of wireless resources allocated to each service group at a given RAT interface is specified by the service group attributes.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein data flow splitting is performed using the instantaneous/expected flow data rates of each service group at each RAT.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein when a flow is expected to achieve a data rate of r1 and r2 at the first RAT interface and the second RAT interface, respectively, then a first fraction r1/(r1+r2) of the flow is directed to the first RAT interface and a second fraction r2/(r1+r2) of the flow is directed to the second RAT interface.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the expected flow data rates are estimated via any of the following:

a RAT'"'"'s physical bit rates, channel quality feedback from the base stations and/or UEs, and a percentage of wireless resources allocated to a vMAC of corresponding service group.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the expected flow data rates are estimated via a history of achieved data rates.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein data flow splitting is performed using a queue size history for flows at a given RAT interface'"'"'s base stations.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the joint optimization of vMAC configurations and data flow splitting between RAT interfaces is done in an iterative manner.