WO2025051346A1

WO2025051346A1 - Radio access network stateless load balancing

Info

Publication number: WO2025051346A1
Application number: PCT/EP2023/074226
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ulf Eric Andretzky; Patrik Karlsson
Original assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Current assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson AB
Priority date: 2023-09-05
Filing date: 2023-09-05
Publication date: 2025-03-13
Anticipated expiration: 2026-03-05

Abstract

A method and apparatus to load balance at a network node for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices. The method provides for determining that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; and receiving a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node. The method further provides for initiating the load balance operation by selecting a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connecting the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

Description

SPECIFICATION

RADIO ACCESS NETWORK STATELESS LOAD BALANCING

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Embodiments of the disclosure relate to the field of communications; and more specifically, to a solution for how to perform traffic load balancing for processing hardware pool entity in a radio access network system.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Currently in the field of wireless communications, cell related processing is configured and connected to one processing hardware pool entity. As a result, all users connected to a cell, their user-plane and control-plane functionality, transport network (TN) termination, as well as cell related functionality (e.g., initial connection establishment, system broadcasting, etc.) are processed on this hardware pool entity. With this technique, multiple cells can be connected to the same hardware pool entity. As an example, FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art practice of assigning cells to a hardware (HW) pool entity and transferring one of the cells to another hardware pool entity for load balancing as the communications traffic increases.

[0003] FIG. 1 shows a typical wireless communications system 100 that includes a core network (CN) 101 connected to a radio access network (RAN) 102, wherein a transport network (TN) 103 operates as an interface between the CN 101 and the RAN 102. Typically, the RAN 102 is associated with one or more HW pool entity 104. A fronthaul connection 105 provides a wireless communications connection to a number of terminal devices located in one or more cells. FIG. 1 illustrates two cells, Cell A and Cell B connected to the HW pool entity 104.

[0004] A HW pool entity 104 typically has some kind of physical limitation on how much processing capacity it can support (e.g., how much TN termination of user-data, how much Layer 2 respective Layer 1 processing, and/or how much memory it has). As a result, the system 100 is often deployed with multiple HW pool entities to be able to increase the system capacity (bitrate, number of users, number of cells etc.). FIG. 1 shows two HW pool entities 104a and 104b for RAN 102.

[0005] It is common that one HW pool entity contains all processing and memory that is required from CN-TN termination down to the fronthaul 105, due to high RAN real-time requirements. However, it is possible with alternative realizations, such as with a mesh network connectivity between different HW pool entities, to increase the flexibility by having a HW pool entity serve a specific cell. Thus, as shown by an arrow between the left and right diagrams, processing of operations of Cell B can be moved from HW pool entity 104a (shown in the left diagram) to a new HW pool entity 104b (shown in the right diagram).

[0006] Additionally, the use of multiple HW pool entities allows for a way to increase the network reliability. For example, if one HW pool entity becomes out of service, it is only one out of multiple HW pool entities. The network availability can remain, although with some limited performance degradation. However, even if multiple HW pool entities exist, from an energy efficient standpoint, it is often favorable to not use all HW pool entities unless needed. Unused HW pool entities can then achieve a higher level of energy saving.

[0007] In practice, the traffic load in an actual RAN fluctuates significantly over time and between cells. Therefore, it is hard to predict the combined traffic load from all cells connected to a single processor hardware pool entity. As a result, a network operator either has to overdimension the processing hardware pool entity to avoid overload or needs to be able to actively load-balance between HW pool entities when experiencing a traffic overload.

[0008] A problem is that when moving a cell from one HW pool entity to another, it comes with a dependency to the existing RAN traffic, as all existing traffic need to be moved as well to keep the cell and all cell related traffic handling together. To be able to keep the cell and the cell related traffic together, the cell first needs to be emptied from the existing traffic. This requires first that the cell is barred from new accesses which temporarily decreases the available system capacity. Additionally, the system also needs to initiate traffic handling (e.g., Layer 3 handover of the existing users away from the cell), which takes time, but also generates additional system processing and air-interface signaling load.

[0009] Accordingly, the load balancing is slow, as the load balancing operation needs to wait until all existing traffic can be released via traffic handling, and then perform the transfer of stateful information from the cell. Furthermore, cell movement to another HW pool entity for load balancing may not be desirable in certain situations, such as a situation when there is a high load demand in the cell and a need not to interrupt cell operation in the system at that time.

SUMMARY

[0010] Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments provide solutions to challenges noted above. When there is a high load at a hardware (HW) pool entity (such as a processing HW pool entity), only the cell functionality related to the initial connection establishment (e.g., initial access control and/or paging control) of one or more cells is moved to another HW pool entity. Then, all new connection establishments of that cell and the load they generate are established at the newly selected HW pool entity. Hence, no new load generation occurs at the highly loaded HW pool entity, and gradually as the already existing traffic is served off by the cell, the load on the highly loaded HW pool entity decreases.

[0011] Load sharing of HW pool entities in a RAN system is achieved by moving where the stateless functionality of the RAN initial access control of a cell is allocated and where the stateless new connections are established.

[0012] Load sharing of the RAN system HW pool entities is achieved by moving the initial access handling of new users to a cell. This operation results in the moving of the stateless initial random-access handling of the cell and/or changing the targeted HW pool entity of the stateless initial allocation of the user connection establishment of the cell.

[0013] In one aspect of the disclosed system, a method provides to load balance at a network node for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices by determining that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receiving a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiating the load balance operation by selecting a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connecting the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

[0014] In another aspect of the disclosed system, the signal from the terminal device is a random access signal to connect to the network node.

[0015] In another aspect of the disclosed system, the random access signal is a Physical Random Access CHannel (PRACH).

[0016] In another aspect of the disclosed system, a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs by configuring and activating the PRACH handling on the different hardware entity.

[0017] In another aspect of the disclosed system, a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs when initial dedicated user allocation occurs in response to the PRACH by allocating user equipment context at the different hardware entity.

[0018] In another aspect of the disclosed system, the current hardware entity and the different hardware entity comprise separate Layer 1 entities, L2 entities, and/or L3 entities.

[0019] In another aspect of the disclosed system, a scheduler of the network node performs the load balance operation.

[0020] In another aspect of the disclosed system, the scheduler is implemented at a Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer of the network node.

[0021] In another aspect of the disclosed system, the network node is a Radio Access Network (RAN) node for a wireless communications system. [0022] In another aspect of the disclosed system, a network node is to perform load balance for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices, the network node configured to: determine that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receive a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiate the load balance operation by selection of a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connect the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

[0023] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, the signal from the terminal device is a random access signal to connect to the network node.

[0024] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, the random access signal is a Physical Random Access CHannel (PRACH).

[0025] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs by configuring and activating the PRACH handling on the different hardware entity.

[0026] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs when initial dedicated user allocation occurs in response to the PRACH by allocating user equipment context at the different hardware entity.

[0027] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, the current hardware entity and the different hardware entity comprise separate Layer 1 entities, L2 entities, and/or L3 entities.

[0028] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, a scheduler of the network node performs the load balance operation.

[0029] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, the scheduler is implemented at a Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer of the network node.

[0030] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, the network node is a Radio Access Network (RAN) node for a wireless communications system.

[0031] In another aspect of the disclosed system for the network node, the network node comprises at least one processor and a memory, the memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network node to be configured to: determine that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receive a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiate the load balance operation by selection of a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connect the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

[0032] In another aspect of the disclosed system, a computer program comprising instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to carry out a method to load balance at a network node for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices by determining that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receiving a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiating the load balance operation by selecting a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connecting the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

[0033] In another aspect of the disclosed system, a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program to provide a method to load balance at a network node for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices by determining that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receiving a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiating the load balance operation by selecting a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connecting the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

[0034] Proposed herein are various embodiments which address one or more of the issues disclosed herein. Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technical advantage(s).

[0035] A benefit of the proposed solution is that the RAN system can balance the load among different HW pool entities (e.g., processor HW pool entities) faster, more efficiently, and without disturbance to or involving any traffic handling of the with existing traffic. Since the load balancing is performed at time of access of a terminal device for that terminal device, existing terminal devices attached to the RAN system are not affected. Therefore, the load balancing is achieved without addressing and moving any stateful information of terminal devices currently attached to the RAN, but only addressing stateless information of functionality for the terminal devices seeking access to the RAN. As a result, the RAN system can achieve a higher utilization efficiency of the installed HW pool entities, and thereby provide a higher system capacity and end-user experience from the existing system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] The embodiments of the disclosure may be understood by referring to the following description and accompanying drawings.

[0037] FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art practice of assigning cells to a hardware pool entity and transferring one of the cells to another hardware pool entity for load balancing.

[0038] FIG. 2 illustrates a basic system architecture to provide load balance operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0039] FIG. 3 illustrates an example load balance operation for a user access to a network in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0040] FIG. 4 illustrates an example load balance operation for a user PRACH access to a network in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0041] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram for a method to perform load balancing in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0042] FIG. 6 illustrates an implementation example for the method of FIG. 5 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0043] FIG. 7 illustrates another implementation example for the method of FIG. 5 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0044] FIG. 8 illustrates where Layer 1 switching is used along with hardware pool entities in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0045] FIG. 9 illustrates a network node to provide load balance operations in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0046] FIG. 10 illustrates another network node to provide load balance operations in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0047] FIG. 11 shows an implementation example for an access network in a communication system associated with Open RAN architecture in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] The following description describes methods and apparatus to load balance at a network node for a wireless communications. The technique can be applied at various wireless access nodes, such as nodes that provide radio access network connections, access points, etc., where wireless terminal devices access the communications network to connect to the network. The following description describes numerous specific details such as operative steps, resource implementations, types of signals, and interrelationships of system components of a wireless network to provide a more thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It will be appreciated, however, by one skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present disclosure can be practiced without such specific details. In other instances, control structures, circuits, memory structures, system and/or network functions, and software instruction sequences have not been shown in detail in order not to obscure the present disclosure. Those of ordinary skill in the art, with the included descriptions, will be able to implement appropriate functionality without undue experimentation.

[0049] References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” “some embodiments,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Furthermore, when a particular feature, structure, model, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to implement such feature, structure, characteristic, or model in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0050] Bracketed text and blocks with dashed borders (e g., large dashes, small dashes, dotdash, and dots) may be used herein to illustrate optional operations that add additional features to embodiments of the present disclosure. However, such notation should not be taken to mean that these are the only options or optional operations, and/or that blocks with solid borders are not optional in some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0051] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other embodiments, however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein. The disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limited to only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter to those skilled in the art. [0052] Some of the embodiments contemplated herein apply to specific functions, data structures, network node, etc., associated with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) communications systems. However, the described embodiments can be deployed in other than 3GPP communications systems.

[0053] FIG. 2 illustrates a basic system architecture to provide load balance operation in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. A system 200 is part of a network node that provides an access connection to communicates wirelessly with terminal devices, such as user equipment (UE). In some embodiments, system 200 is part of a radio access network (RAN) node. The RAN node can be part of a 3GPP communications system. Thus, the RAN may be a base station, such as Node B, eNB (eNodeB), gNB, etc. In some embodiments, system 200 may be part of some other access point (AP) utilizing protocols other than 3GPP. In some embodiments, system 200 may operate using the architecture equivalent to that shown in FIG. 1. Thus, although not specifically shown in FIG. 2, system 200 can communicate with a core network (CN), such as CN 101 shown in FIG. 1.

[0054] System 200 includes more than one HW pool entity 204 to provide processing support for the system 200. In FIG. 2, two HW pool entities 204a and 204b are shown. However, the system 200 may contain more than 2 such HW pool entities. Each HW pool entity can include various components, such as processors, memories, etc., to provide processing functions for the system 200. In some embodiments, the HW pool entities are hardware localized at the node and in other situations, the HW pool entities may be located remotely. In some embodiments, the HW pool entities can be cloud based. A switched fronthaul 205 provides a switching function to wirelessly connect a user terminal device to one of the HW pool entities.

[0055] In operation, the system 200 can operate similar to what was described for the system 100 in FIG. 1. That is, one HW pool entity (such as HW pool entity 204a) provides processing support for multiple cells. However, unlike the cell transfer operation described earlier, the system 200 provides load balancing by transferring terminal devices to a new (e.g., different) HW pool entity while the terminal device is still in a stateless state. Stateless means that the terminal device has not yet attached to an assigned HW pool entity. That is, load sharing of HW pool entities in a RAN system is achieved by moving where the stateless functionality of the RAN initial access control of a cell is allocated and where the stateless new connections are established. Load sharing of the RAN system HW pool entities is achieved by moving the initial access handling of new users to a cell. This operation results in the moving of the stateless initial random-access handling of the cell and/or changing the targeted HW pool entity of the stateless initial allocation of the user connection establishment of the cell.

[0056] The basis for stateless initial allocation can be achieved if the system 200 can perform HW pool entity allocation when a terminal device of a user initially accesses the system 200 (note that user, terminal device, and UE are interchangeably used herein). When a condition exists that warrants a load balance operation to balance traffic, instead of moving existing users of a cell to another HW pool entity (such as from HW pool entity 204a to HW pool entity 204b), the transfer is performed as users access the system 200 to connect to the system 200. In order to perform the HW pool entity transfer while still in the stateless state, the system 200 needs to be designed with a capability of separation between different cell related functionality and connected user related functionality. The cell and its related traffic should not be handled as one monolithic co-located dependent unit.

[0057] In the system 200, a scheduler 201 is responsible for selection and decision of the transmission of data and signals in the sector carrier of the cell. In some embodiments, the schedular 201 is a Layer 2 (L2) schedular. In some embodiments, the schedular is implemented at a Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer of the L2. The scheduler 201 is able to handle input and schedule order output to multiple users simultaneously that are connected to different L1/L2 HW pool entities, even if they are connected to the same cell sector earner (e.g., need not have a strict relation or dependency to only one specific processing hardware pool entity for the cell.

[0058] Because Layer 2 scheduling by the schedular is not restricted to users being allocated to one single HW pool entity, the initial connection establishment to a cell also is not necessarily restricted to establish new connections to only one specific single HW pool entity. The initial random-access process is quite processing load consuming. Therefore, an efficient way to achieve load balancing between HW pool entities, such as HW pool entities 204a and 204b, is to move the initial random-access of a cell from a high loaded HW pool entity to a lower loaded HW pool entity. Moving the initial random-access process directly decreases the load, but also if anew connection of the cell is established at the selected lower loaded HW pool entity, it also gradually decreases the load of the high loaded HW pool entity as no new connections is established there. A typical strategy is to allocate new users to the same processing hardware pool entity as where the initial random-access processing is located. This results in a more realtime efficient solution when kept within the same HW pool entity and generates less cross HW pool entity signaling load. Furthermore, even if it is possible to spread out users from one cell over multiple different HW pool entities, from an overall solution aspect, it is still beneficial to avoid spreading out users belonging to the same cell over many HW pool entities. Since this otherwise risks generating excessive inter-HW pool entity signaling load and can result in an energy inefficient solution when all hardware pool entities are used even when not necessary (e.g., during low traffic load condition).

[0059] Accordingly, FIG. 2 shows a system 200 (e.g., a RAN system) with a switched fronthaul 205, schedular 201, and multiple HW pool entities 204 (e.g., processing hardware pool entities), each handling user-plane and control-plane functionality, at user and sector carrier cell level. The switched fronthaul 205 allows for multiple HW pool entities 204 to transmit and receive different data flows (data traffic) simultaneously to a respective antenna. A transmitreceive point can transmit and receive different data flows to multiple HW pool entities. The Layer 2 scheduler 201 deciding the transmissions at a cell sector carriers can handle users spread out over multiple HW pool entities, so that each system 200 can terminate user data traffic to more than one HW pool entity.

[0060] FIG. 3 illustrates an example load balance operation for a user access to a network in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The access to the network can be in way of a random access signaling. In FIG. 3, the left portion shows current operation in which traffic is routed to HW pool entity 204a, via the switched fronthaul 205. A transmission time interval (TTI) plot shows existing access connection to the system 200 is routed 301 and terminated at HW pool entity 204a. At some point, the system 200 determines that a load balance operation is to be initiated to load balance the traffic. The schedular 201 initiates the load balance operation by selecting a different HW pool entity 204b. The inflection point is shown in the TTI plot as “Change HW Pool Entity” at which point a new access to the system 200 is seamlessly switched and routed 302 to the HW pool entity 204b.

[0061] FIG. 4 illustrates an example load balance operation for a user PRACH access to a network in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 is equivalent to FIG. 3, except that the access is performed by a Physical Random Access CHannel (PRACH) signaling. At initial connection establishment, user related aspects are initiated and therefore not yet stateful but stateless. That is, TN termination of the user, the UE context, the L2 processing and LI processing have not been completed. Furthermore, as time elapses, the already established connections will disconnect when finished and further decrease the load of the high loaded HW pool entity. Another aspect is that the moving of the initial random access can be made instantly from one TTI to another without performance or handling impact of the existing connected users. As the initial random-access process is stateless, it can be performed by the switching operation of the fronthaul termination point for the PRACH flow. Furthermore, the processing location of random access has no dependency to connected user handling. Note that this can be limited to the initial random-access, then contention free random access used for handover, if preferred, can be co-located at the HW pool entity used by the respective user.

[0062] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram 500 for a method to perform load balancing in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The flow diagram 500 is better understood when taken in context with the description in reference to FIGs. 1-4. The method pertains to load balance at a network node for wireless communications with terminal devices (e.g., UE or users).

[0063] An operation 501 pertains to determining that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices. The determination for a load balance operation need not wait until an overload condition exists. Rather, because of the seamless switching of terminal devices to a different HW pool entity, the determination can be made before such overload conditions are encountered.

[0064] An operation 502 pertains to receiving a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node. The signal can be an access request, PRACH, paging or any other signal establishing an access and connection to the network. The signal is received and switched via the fronthaul portion of the network node.

[0065] An operation 503 pertains to initiating the load balance operation by selecting a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node. A scheduler provides the switching of the user and scheduling of the new HW pool entity (different HW pool entity from the current HW pool entity).

[0066] An operation 504 pertains to connecting the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node to complete the transition of the user to the new HW pool entity. The scheduling of the new HW pool entity and the connection process to the new HW pool entity is performed while the terminal device is still in a stateless state

[0067] The method 500 can be implemented in a variety of ways. Two different implementations are illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. FIG. 6 illustrates an implementation example for the method of FIG. 5 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG. 6 shows a method 600. At operation 601, a check is made as to the load condition at the currently used HW pool entity. At operation 602, if the load is high (e.g., higher than a threshold), then a different HW pool entity with a lower load is located from the HW pool entities for the network node at operation 603. At operation 604, if a lower loaded HW pool entity is found, the access attempt (e.g., PRACH) is configured and activated on the new HW pool entity at operation 605. At operation 606, the access attempt to the current HW pool entity is stopped. At operation 607, the access attempt (e.g., PRACH) termination is switched to the new HW pool entity and the access attempt (e.g., PRACH) is unconfigured on the old HW pool entity at operation 608.

[0068] FIG. 7 illustrates another implementation example for the method of FIG. 5 in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the allocation pertains to a UE context. A UE context is generally defined as a block of information in an eNB, gNB associated to one active UE. The block of information contains the necessary information required to maintain the network’s services towards the active UE. FIG. 7 shows a method 700. At operation 701, the network node needs to allocate a UE context in the system. At operation 702, a check is made as to the load condition at the current HW pool entity. If the current HW pool entity has a high load condition (e.g., higher than a threshold) at operation 703, a different HW pool entity with a lower load is sought at operation 704. If a lower loaded HW pool entity is found at operation 705, the UE context is allocated to the new (different) HW pool entity at operation 706. Then, at operation 707, the PRACH process of the UE continues at the new HW pool entity. However, if at operation 703, the load condition is not high; or if at operation 705, a lower loaded HW pool entity is not found, the UE context stays with the current HW pool entity (shown at operation 708) and the PRACH process continues with the current HW pool entity at operation 707.

[0069] FIG. 8 illustrates where Layer 1 switching is used along with hardware pool entities in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. A system 800 of FIG. 8 is equivalent to the system 200 of FIG. 2 with the inclusion of a CN 801 connected to RAN 802. The added elements of the RAN 802 over the RAN of the system 200 are the separated Layer 1 (LI) 803 and the switching 804 located between the HW pool entities 204 and the LI 803. In some embodiments, the LI part of the HW pool entity is separated out as separate part (or entity) of the HW pool entity. Hence, different LI entities can be selected apart from selecting different HW pool entities. Accordingly, with this added choice in selection, the load balance analysis can look at the load at the LI level entities separate from the portions of the HW pool entities. The switching can select either a new LI or a new HW pool entity or both. The separation of the LI entities permits an added level of choice for performing the load balance operation. The separation of the LI can be extended to other layers such as L2 and L3 as well. Thus, in some embodiments, LI level entities can be separated, L2 level entities can be separated and/or L3 level entities can be separated (e.g., LI, L2, L3, or any combination thereol) and switched to accommodate the load balance operation separate from or in conjunction with HW pool entities.

[0070] FIG. 9 illustrates a network node 900 to provide load balance operations in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the network node 900 is the system 200 or the RAN 802 of the system 800. The network node 900 can implement the functions of the method 500 of FIG. 5, as well as the various embodiments described in the disclosure. As shown, a Determine Module 901 can perform operations corresponding to the operation 501 of FIG. 5. A Receive Module 902 can perform operations corresponding to the operation 502. An Initiate Module 903 can perform operations corresponding to the operation 503. A Connect Module 904 can perform operations corresponding to the operation 504.

[0071] In some embodiments, the modules 901-901 can be provided as a computer program product, or software, that can include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which can be used to program a computer system (or other electronic device) to perform a process according to the present disclosure. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). In some embodiments, a machine-readable (e.g., computer-readable) medium includes a machine (e.g., a computer) readable storage medium such as a read only memory (“ROM”), random access memory (“RAM”), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory components, etc. [0072] In some embodiment, the modules of the network node 900 are implemented in software. In other embodiments, the modules of the network node 900 are implemented in hardware. In further embodiments, the modules of the network node 900 are implemented in a combination of hardware and software. In some embodiments, the computer program can be provided on a carrier, where the carrier is one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal or computer storage medium.

[0073] FIG. 10 illustrates another network node 1000 to provide load balance operations in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the network node 1000 is the system 200 or the RAN 802 of the system 800. The network node 1000 can implement the functions of the method 500 of FIG. 5, as well as the various embodiments described in the disclosure. In some embodiments, the network node 1000 can be configured to implement the modules 901-904 of FIG. 9, wherein the instructions of the computer program for providing the functions of modules 901-904 reside in a memory 1002. [0074] The network node 1000 comprises processing circuitry (such as one or more processors) 1001 and a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, such as the memory 1002. The processing circuitry 1001 provides the processing capability. A processor of the processing circuitry 1001 may be a microprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit, digital signal processor, application specific integrated circuit, field programmable gate array, any other type of electronic circuitry, or any combination of one or more of the preceding. The processor may comprise one or more processor cores. In particular embodiments, some or all of the functionality described herein as being provided by network node 1000 may be implemented by processor 1001 executing software instructions, either alone or in conjunction with other network device 1000 components, such as the memory 1002. [0075] The memory 1002 can store instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitiy 1001, are capable of configuring the network node 1000 to perform the methods described in the present disclosure. The memory can be a computer readable storage medium 1005, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk, including magnetic disks, optical disks, CD- ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions. Furthermore, a carrier containing the computer program instructions can also be one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal or computer storage medium.

[0076] FIG. 11 shows an implementation example for an access network in a communication system associated with Open RAN architecture in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. In the example, communications system 1100 includes a telecommunication network 1102 that includes an access network 1104, such as a radio access network (RAN), and a core network 1106 (such as 5GC), which includes one or more core network nodes 1108. In some instances, a host 111 connects to the telecommunication network 1102. The access network 1104 includes one or more access network nodes, such as network nodes 1110a and 1110b (one or more of which may be generally referred to as network nodes 1110), or any other similar 3GPP access nodes or non-3GPP access points. Moreover, as will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, a network node is not necessarily limited to an implementation in which a radio portion and a baseband portion are supplied and integrated by a single vendor. Thus, it will be understood that network nodes include disaggregated implementations or portions thereof. For example, in some embodiments, the telecommunication network 1102 includes one or more Open-RAN (O-RAN) network nodes. An ORAN network node is a node in the telecommunication network 1102 that supports an ORAN specification (e.g., a specification published by the O-RAN Alliance, or any similar organization) and may operate alone or together with other nodes to implement one or more functionalities of any node in the telecommunication network 1102, including one or more network nodes 1110 and/or core network nodes 1108.

[0077] Examples of an ORAN network node include an open radio unit (O-RU), an open distributed unit (O-DU), an open central unit (O-CU), including an O-CU control plane (O-CU- CP) or an O-CU user plane (O-CU-UP), a RAN intelligent controller (near-real time or non-real time) hosting software or software plug-ins, such as a near-real time control application (e.g., xApp) or anon-real time control application (e.g., rApp), or any combination thereof (the adjective "open" designating support of an ORAN specification). The network node may support a specification by, for example, supporting an interface defined by the ORAN specification, such as an Al, Fl, 01, Wl, El, E2, X2, Xn interface, an open fronthaul user plane interface, or an open fronthaul management plane interface. Moreover, an ORAN access node may be a logical node in a physical node. Furthermore, an ORAN network node may be implemented in a virtualization environment in which one or more network functions are virtualized For example, the virtualization environment may include an O-Cloud computing platform orchestrated by a Service Management and Orchestration Framework via an 02 interface defined by the O-RAN Alliance or comparable technologies. The network nodes 1110 facilitate direct or indirect connection of user equipment (UE), such as by connecting UEs 1112A, 1112B, 1112C, and 1112D (one or more of which may be generally referred to as UEs 1112) to the core network 1106 over one or more wireless connections. Sometime a hub 1114 is employed to connect a network node to a UE. [0078] Exemplary embodiments herein have been described above with reference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods and apparatuses. It will be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implemented by various means including computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

[0079] Furthermore, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the subject matter described herein, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A method (500) to load balance at a network node for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices, the method comprising: determining (501) that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receiving (502) a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiating (503) the load balance operation by selecting a different hardware entity (204b) from a cunent hardware entity (204a) to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connecting (504) the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the signal from the terminal device is a random access signal (301) to connect to the network node.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the random access signal is a Physical Random Access CHannel, PRACH (301).

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs by configuring and activating (600) the PRACH handling on the different hardware entity.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs when initial dedicated user allocation occurs in response to the PRACH by allocating (700) user equipment context at the different hardware entity.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the current hardware entity and the different hardware entity comprise separate Layer 1 entities, L2 entities, and/or L3 entities.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1-6, wherein a scheduler (201) of the network node performs the load balance operation.

8 The method according to claim 7, wherein the scheduler (201) is implemented at a Medium Access Control, MAC, sublayer of the network node.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-8, wherein the network node is a Radio Access Network, RAN, (200, 802) node for a wireless communications system.

10. A network node (900, 1000) to perform load balance for wireless communications with a plurality of terminal devices, the network node configured to: determine (901, 501) that a load balance operation at the network node is to be initiated to load balance wireless communications traffic between the network node and the plurality of terminal devices; receive (902, 502) a signal from a terminal device to connect and access the network node; initiate (903, 503) the load balance operation by selection of a different hardware entity from a current hardware entity to connect the terminal device to the network node; and connect (904, 504) the terminal device to the different hardware entity of the network node.

11. The network node according to claim 10, wherein the signal from the terminal device is a random access signal (301) to connect to the network node.

12. The network node according to claim 11, wherein the random access signal is a Physical Random Access CHannel, PRACH (301).

13. The network node according to claim 12, wherein a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs by configuring and activating (600) the PRACH on the different hardware entity.

14. The network node according to claim 12, wherein a transition from the current hardware entity to the different hardware entity occurs when initial dedicated user allocation occurs in response to the PRACH by allocating (700) user equipment context at the different hardware entity.

15. The network node according to any one of claims 10-14, wherein the current hardware entity and the different hardware entity comprise separate Layer 1 entities, L2 entities, and/or L3 entities.

16. The network node according to any one of claims 10-15, wherein a scheduler (201) of the network node performs the load balance operation.

17. The network node according to claim 16, wherein the scheduler (201) is implemented at a Medium Access Control, MAC, sublayer of the network node.

18. The network node according to any one of claims 10-17, wherein the network node is a Radio Access Network, RAN, node (200, 802) for a wireless communications system.

19. The network node according to any one of claims 10-18, wherein the network node comprises at least one processor (1001) and a memory (1002), the memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the network node to be configured.

20. A computer program comprising instructions (901-904) which, when executed on at least one processor (1001), cause the at least one processor to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1-9.

21. A computer-readable storage medium (1005) having stored thereon a computer program according to claim 20.