ORCHESTRATOR AND INTERCONNECTION FABRIC MAPPER FOR A VIRTUAL WIRELESS BASE STATION

• US 20200137594A1
• Filed: 10/30/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Mezzalingua Associates, Llc
• Original Assignee: John Mezzalingua Associates, Llc
• Inventors: Notargiacomo, Massimo, Courington, Jeffrey, Turner, Stephen, Masters, Jeffrey, Agrawal, Vishal, Foresta, Francesco
• Granted Patent: US 11,689,939 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/16 for PBS [Private Base Station] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/18 Network planning tools
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 16/22 Traffic simulation tools or models
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/02 Arrangements for optimising operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/16 Central resource management; Negotiation of resources or communication parameters, e.g. negotiating bandwidth or QoS [Quality of Service]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/06 Reselecting a communication resource in the serving access point
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 36/22 for handling the traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/10 using broadcasted information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/12 using downlink control channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/18 Selecting a network or a communication service
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/082 for traffic bypassing of mobility servers, e.g. location registers, home PLMNs or home agents
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/02 Data link layer protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/045 using private Base Stations, e.g. femto Base Stations, home Node B
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/085 Access point devices with remote components
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/18 Service support devices; Network management devices

Abstract

Disclosed is a virtual wireless base station that can dynamically scale its capacity to meet changes in demand for connectivity. The virtual wireless base station includes a plurality of virtual baseband modules, a plurality of interface/router modules, an orchestrator module and a fabric mapper module. Each of the plurality of virtual baseband modules is coupled to the interface/router modules by a low latency switch fabric. The orchestrator determines current and near future demand for connectivity within the virtual wireless base station and either instantiates and connects new virtual baseband processors to meet a rise in demand, or shuts down underutilized virtual baseband processors in case of insufficient demand.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine readable memory encoded with instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a process, comprising:

determining a demand for connectivity to a wireless communications access network;

determining a combination of component modules based on the demand for connectivity, the combination of component modules including at least one baseband module;

determining a plurality of interconnect channels between the at least one baseband module and the other component modules within the combination of component modules;

instantiating each component module within of the combination of component modules;

connecting the at least one baseband module to at least one external network component; and

connecting the at least one baseband module to at least one user equipment (UE).

2. The machine readable memory of claim 1, wherein each component module comprises:

a connection to an ethernet switch; and

a connection to a low latency switch fabric.

3. The machine readable memory of claim 2, wherein the low latency switch fabric comprises an Inifiniband switch.

4. The machine readable memory of claim 2, wherein the combination of component modules comprises a plurality of interface/router modules, wherein the interface/router modules are coupled to the at least one baseband module via the low latency switch fabric, and wherein the interface/router component modules are coupled to the at least one external network component via the Ethernet switch.

5. The machine readable memory of claim 4, wherein the connecting the baseband module to at least one UE comprises:

establishing a connection between a POI/DAS module and the baseband module over the low latency switch fabric; and

establishing a connection between the POI/DAS module and a remote unit.

6. The machine readable memory of claim 5, wherein the connection between the POI/DAS module and the remote unit comprises a CPRI connection.

7. The machine readable memory of claim 4, wherein connecting the baseband module to at least one UE comprises establishing a connection between the at least one baseband module and a remote unit.

8. The machine readable memory of claim 7, wherein the connection between the at least one baseband module and the remote unit comprises a CPRI connection.

9. The machine readable memory of claim 8, wherein the CPRI connection comprises a CPRI switch coupled between the at least one baseband module and the remote unit.

10. The machine readable memory of claim 2, wherein the at least one baseband module comprises a plurality of baseband modules.

11. The machine readable memory of claim 10, wherein the instantiating each of the combination of component modules comprises allocating a shared memory for a plurality of UE context data.

12. The machine readable memory of claim 10, wherein the connecting the baseband module to at least one UE comprises writing UE context data corresponding to the at least one UE to the shared memory.

13. The machine readable memory of claim 10, wherein at least one of the plurality of baseband modules comprises an IoT scheduler component.

14. The machine readable memory of claim 2, wherein the at least one baseband module comprises:

a PDCP (Pached Data Convergence Protocol) component;

an RLC (Radio Link Control) component;

a scheduler component, wherein the scheduler component includes a MAC (Medium Access Control) component; and

a PHY (Physical Layer) component,

wherein the PDCP component and the PHY component are each coupled to the low latency switch fabric, and wherein the scheduler component is coupled to the Ethernet switch.

15. A non-transitory machine readable memory encoded with instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, comprising:

determining a demand for connectivity to a wireless communications access network, the wireless communications access network having at least one baseband module;

determining whether a capacity corresponding to the at least one baseband module is sufficient to meet the demand;

instantiating at least one additional baseband module;

connecting the at least one additional baseband module to at least one external network component; and

instructing at least one of the plurality of baseband modules to handover one or more UEs to the at least one additional baseband module.

16. The non-transitory machine readable memory of claim 15, wherein the instantiating at least one additional baseband module comprises:

allocating a sector of memory for a plurality of UE context data;

coupling the at least one additional baseband module to a low latency switch fabric; and

coupling the at least one additional baseband module to an Ethernet switch.

17. The non-transitory machine readable memory of claim 16, wherein the coupling the at least one additional baseband module to a low latency switch fabric comprises:

coupling a PDCP component module to the low latency switch fabric; and

coupling a PHY component module to the low latency switch fabric.

18. The non-transitory machine readable memory of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises reporting a change in capacity of the wireless network.

19. A non-transitory machine readable memory encoded with instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, comprising:

determining a demand for connectivity within a wireless communications access network, the wireless communications access network having a plurality of baseband modules;

designating one of the plurality of baseband modules as an underutilitzed virtual baseband module based on the demand for connectivity;

instructing the underutilitzed baseband module to handover a plurality of connected UEs to a recipient baseband module within the plurality of baseband modules, the recipient baseband module corresponding to a neighboring cell group; and

shutting down the underutilized baseband module.

20. The non-transitory machine readable memory of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises adjusting a power level of a one or more remote unit corresponding to the recipient baseband module.

21. The non-transitory machine readable memory of claim 19, wherein the method further comprises reporting a change in capacity of the wireless communication access network.

22. A virtual wireless base station, comprising:

a plurality of routing means;

a plurality of baseband processing means;

an orchestrating means;

a switching means for low latency switching coupled between the plurality of routing means and the plurality of baseband processing means; and

a mapping means for fabric mapping, the mapping means for fabric mapping coupled to the means for orchestrating and the switching means for low latency switching.

23. The virtual wireless base station of claim 22, further comprising a means for coordinating between two baseband processing means to mitigate intercell interference.

24. (canceled)

25. (canceled)