SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DISTRIBUTING NETWORK RESOURCES TO NETWORK SERVICE PROVIDERS

• US 20170085493A1
• Filed: 09/08/2016
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Senarath, Nimal Gamini, Vrzic, Sophie, Rao, Jaya, Zhang, Hang
• Granted Patent: US 10,862,818 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/522 Dynamic queue service slot or variable bandwidth allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/741 Holding a request until resources become available
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/822 Collecting or measuring resource availability data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/535 based on resource usage policies

Abstract

there is provided a method of generating a soft schedule for the transmission of data to a User Equipment. The method includes receiving traffic to be scheduled for transmission and generating a soft schedule for the transmission of the received data in accordance with a resource allocation and the received traffic. The method further includes transmitting the soft schedule to a scheduler in an underlying network slice, for transmission to the UE. There is also provided a scheduler including a processor and machine readable memory storing machine executable instructions which when executed by the processor configures the scheduler perform the above method.

Claims

1. A method of generating a soft schedule for the transmission of data to a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving traffic to be scheduled for transmission;

generating a soft schedule for the transmission of the received data in accordance with a resource allocation and the received traffic;

transmitting the soft schedule to a scheduler in an underlying network slice, for transmission to the UE.

2. The method of claim 1 further including buffering a portion of the received traffic in accordance with an indication that the portion cannot be scheduled for transmission in a current transmission window.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the soft schedule is generated in accordance with traffic demands associated with a buffered portion of traffic received in a previous transmission window.

4. The method of claim 2 further including transmitting an indication of an updated resource allocation to a scheduler in a supported network slice in accordance with the buffered data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the resource allocation is associated with a network slice.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the soft schedule to the scheduler in the underlying network slice includes transmitting the data identified in the soft schedule to an entity in the underlying network slice.

7. The method of claim 1 further including storing traffic associated with the soft schedule.

8. The method of claim 7 further including receiving an indication of oversubscription from the scheduler in the underlying network slice.

9. The method of claim 8 further including flushing a portion of the stored traffic associated with the soft schedule in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the soft schedule is generated in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the soft schedule is generated in accordance with an updated resource allocation received from the scheduler in the underlying network slice.

12. A scheduler comprising:

a processor; and

machine readable memory storing machine executable instructions which when executed by the processor configure the scheduler to;

receive traffic to be scheduled for transmission;

generate a soft schedule for the transmission of the received data in accordance with a resource allocation and the received traffic; and

transmit the soft schedule to a scheduler in an underlying network slice, for transmission to the UE.

13. The scheduler of claim 12 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to buffer a portion of the received traffic in accordance with an indication that the portion cannot be scheduled for transmission in a current transmission window.

14. The scheduler of claim 13 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to transmit an indication of an updated resource allocation to a scheduler in a supported network slice in accordance with the buffered data.

15. The scheduler of claim 12 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to transmit the soft schedule to the scheduler in the underlying network slice includes transmitting the data identified in the soft schedule to an entity in the underlying network slice.

16. The scheduler of claim 12 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to store traffic associated with the soft schedule.

17. The scheduler of claim 16 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to receive an indication of oversubscription from the scheduler in the underlying network slice.

18. The scheduler of claim 17 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to flush a portion of the stored traffic associated with the soft schedule in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.

19. The scheduler of claim 17 wherein the machine executable instructions configure the scheduler to flush a portion of the stored traffic associated with the soft schedule in accordance with the received indication of oversubscription.