WO2025208472A1

WO2025208472A1 - Technologies for selective duplication or rerouting in wireless networks

Info

Publication number: WO2025208472A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/086028
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ping-Heng Kuo; Fangli Xu; Ralf ROSSBACH; Haijing Hu; Zhibin Wu; Naveen Kumar R PALLE VENKATA; Alexander Sirotkin; Yuqin Chen; Peng Cheng
Original assignee: Apple Inc
Current assignee: Apple Inc
Priority date: 2024-04-03
Filing date: 2024-04-03
Publication date: 2025-10-09
Anticipated expiration: 2026-10-03

Abstract

The present application relates to devices and components including apparatus, systems, and methods for selective duplication of rerouting based on cross-packet interdependency.

Description

TECHNOLOGIES FOR SELECTIVE DUPLICATION OR REROUTING IN WIRELESS NETWORKS

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates generally to communication networks and, in particular, to technologies for selective duplication or rerouting in wireless networks.

BACKGROUND

Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Technical Specifications (TSs) define standards for wireless networks. These TSs describe aspects related to signaling traffic through systems that incorporate wireless networks.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a network environment in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 illustrates packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) duplication in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates rerouting in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates an operational flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates another operational flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 8 illustrates another operational flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 9 illustrates another operational flow/algorithmic structure in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 10 illustrates a user equipment in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates a network device in accordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, and techniques in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of various embodiments. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the various embodiments may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the various embodiments with unnecessary detail. For the purposes of the present document, the phrases “A/B” and “A or B” mean (A) , (B) , or (A and B) ; and the phrase “based on A” means “based at least in part on A, ” for example, it could be “based solely on A” or it could be “based in part on A. ”

The following is a glossary of terms that may be used in this disclosure.

The term “circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes hardware components that are configured to provide the described functionality. The hardware components may include an electronic circuit, a logic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, or group) or memory (shared, dedicated, or group) , an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , a field-programmable device (FPD) (e.g., a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) , a programmable logic device (PLD) , a complex PLD (CPLD) , a high-capacity PLD (HCPLD) , a structured ASIC, or a programmable system-on-a-chip (SoC) ) , or a digital signal processor (DSP) . In some embodiments, the circuitry may execute one or more software or firmware programs to provide at least some of the described functionality. The term “circuitry” may also refer to a combination of one or more hardware elements (or a combination of circuits used in an electrical or electronic system) with the program code used to carry out the functionality of that program code. In these embodiments, the combination of hardware elements and program code may be referred to as a particular type of circuitry.

The term “processor circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry capable of sequentially and automatically carrying out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations, or recording, storing, or transferring digital data. The term “processor circuitry” may refer an application processor, baseband processor, a central processing unit (CPU) , a graphics processing unit, a single-core processor, a dual-core processor, a triple-core processor, a quad-core processor, or any other device capable of executing or otherwise operating computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, or functional processes.

The term “interface circuitry” as used herein refers to, is part of, or includes circuitry that enables the exchange of information between two or more components or devices. The term “interface circuitry” may refer to one or more hardware interfaces, for example, buses, I/O interfaces, peripheral component interfaces, and network interface cards.

The term “user equipment” or “UE” as used herein refers to a device with radio communication capabilities that may allow a user to access network resources in a communications network. The term “user equipment” or “UE” may be considered synonymous to, and may be referred to as, client, mobile, mobile device, mobile terminal, user terminal, mobile unit, mobile station, mobile user, subscriber, user, remote station, access agent, user agent, receiver, radio equipment, reconfigurable radio equipment, or reconfigurable mobile device. Furthermore, the term “user equipment” or “UE” may include any type of wireless/wired device or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

The term “computer system” as used herein refers to any type interconnected electronic devices, computer devices, or components thereof. Additionally, the term “computer system” or “system” may refer to various components of a computer that are communicatively coupled with one another. Furthermore, the term “computer system” or “system” may refer to multiple computer devices or multiple computing systems that are communicatively coupled with one another and configured to share computing or networking resource s.

The term “resource” as used herein refers to a physical or virtual device, a physical or virtual component within a computing environment, or a physical or virtual component within a particular device, such as computer devices, mechanical devices, memory space, processor/CPU time, processor/CPU usage, processor and accelerator loads, hardware time or usage, electrical power, input/output operations, ports or network sockets, channel/link allocation, throughput, memory usage, storage, network, database and applications, or workload units. A “hardware resource” may refer to compute, storage, or network resources provided by physical hardware elements. A “virtualized resource” may refer to compute, storage, or network resources provided by virtualization infrastructure to an application, device, or system. The term “network resource” or “communication resource” may refer to resources that are accessible by computer devices/systems via a communications network. The term “system resources” may refer to any kind of shared entities to provide services, and may include computing or network resources. System resources may be considered as a set of coherent functions, network data objects or services, accessible through a server where such system resources reside on a single host or multiple hosts and are clearly identifiable.

The term “channel” as used herein refers to any transmission medium, either tangible or intangible, which is used to communicate data or a data stream. The term “channel” may be synonymous with or equivalent to “communications channel, ” “data communications channel, ” “transmission channel, ” “data transmission channel, ” “access channel, ” “data access channel, ” “link, ” “data link, ” “carrier, ” “radio-frequency carrier, ” or any other like term denoting a pathway or medium through which data is communicated. Additionally, the term “link” as used herein refers to a connection between two devices for the purpose of transmitting and receiving information.

The terms “instantiate, ” “instantiation, ” and the like as used herein refers to the creation of an instance. An “instance” also refers to a concrete occurrence of an object, which may occur, for example, during execution of program code.

The term “connected” may mean that two or more elements, at a common communication protocol layer, have an established signaling relationship with one another over a communication channel, link, interface, or reference point.

The term “network element” as used herein refers to physical or virtualized equipment or infrastructure used to provide wired or wireless communication network services. The term “network element” may be considered synonymous to or referred to as a networked computer, networking hardware, network equipment, network node, or a virtualized network function.

The term “information element” refers to a structural element containing one or more fields. The term “field” refers to individual contents of an information element, or a data element that contains content. An information element may include one or more additional information elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates a network environment 100 in accordance with some embodiments. The network environment 100 may include a user equipment (UE) 104 communicatively coupled with a base station 108 or a radio access network (RAN) 110. The UE 104 and the base station 108 may communicate over air interfaces compatible with 3GPP TSs such as those that define a Fifth Generation (5G) new radio (NR) system or a later system. The base station 108 may provide user plane and control plane protocol terminations toward the UE 104.

In some embodiments, the UE 104 and base station 108 may establish data radio bearers (DRBs) to support transmission of data over a wireless link between the two nodes. In one example, these DRBs may be used for traffic from extended reality (XR) applications that contains a large amount of data conveying real and virtual images and audio for presentation to a user.

The network environment 100 may further include a core network 112. For example, the core network 112 may comprise a 5^th Generation Core network (5GC) or later generation core network. The core network 112 may be coupled to the base station 108 via a fiber optic or wireless backhaul. The core network 112 may provide functions for the UE 104 via the base station 108. These functions may include managing subscriber profile information, subscriber location, authentication of services, or switching functions for voice and data sessions.

The core network 112 may include a user plane function (UPF) 116 that provides for routing and forwarding of user plane packets between the base station 108 and an external data network 120. The BS 108 may receive uplink packets from the UE 104 through the DRBs and may transmit the uplink packets to the UPF 116 through a general packet radio service (GPRS) tunneling protocol-user plane (GTP-U) tunnel. The UPF 116 may remove the packet headers and forward the packets to the external data network 120. The UPF 116 may map downlink packets arriving from an external data network onto specific quality of service (QoS) flows belonging to specific protocol data unit (PDU) sessions before forwarding to the BS 108. The BS 108 may map the traffic to the appropriate DRBs for delivery to the UE 104.

FIG. 2 illustrates aspects of the UE 104 in further detail in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 104 may include an application layer 204 that generates application traffic to be transmitted to another device through the network environment 100. In some embodiments, the application layer 204 may have an XR application that generates XR traffic. However, embodiments are not limited to XR use cases.

For XR and other services, the application layer 204 may generate PDU sets, with individual PDU sets comprising one or more packets. A packet, which may also be referred to as a PDU, may be an Intemet protocol (IP) packet or a non-IP packet. As shown, PDU set #1 may include packets #1-#5, while PDU set #2 includes packet #6 and #7. Each PDU set may be mapped to a different QoS flow.

The packets of a PDU set may carry a payload of one unit of information generated by the application layer. The unit of information may be a frame or video slice for XR Services such as those defined in 3GPP Technical Report (TR) 26.926 vl 8.1.0 (2024-01-05) , for example. In some implementations all PDUs in the PDU Set may be needed by an application layer at a destination node to allow the application layer to recover parts or all of the information unit. In other implementations, the application layer on the destination node may still be able to recover parts or all of the information unit even if some PDUs of a PDU set are missing.

In some embodiments, the data produced by the application layer 204 of the UE 104 may include multi-modal data. Multi-modal data may include input data from different kinds of devices/sensors or output data to different kinds of destinations (e.g. one or more UEs) desired for the same task or application. Multi-modal data may include more than one single-modal data (e.g., one type of data) , and there may be a strong dependency among each single-modal data associated with multi-modal data.

In some embodiments, the data produced by an application layer may be in a data burst. A data burst may include, for example, data produced by the application layer in a short period of time. The data burst may include PDUs from one or more PDU Sets.

The PDU sets may be provided to a transmitter 208 of the UE 104. The transmitter 208 may be configured to execute a communication protocol stack, for example, communication protocol stack 1036 of FIG. 10, to facilitate communication via the network environment 100. The transmitter 208 may implement layer 2 (L2) and layer 1 (L1) functionality. At the L2 level, the transmitter 208 may include a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a media access control (MAC) layer. At the L1 level, the transmitter 208 may include a physical (PHY) layer. Briefly, the SDAP layer may manage QoS flow handling between the QoS flows and the DRBs. The PDCP layer may manage robust header (de) compression and security between DRBs and RLC channels. The RLC layer may manage (re-) segmentation and error correction through automatic repeat request (ARQ) between logical channels and RLC channels. The MAC layer may manage scheduling/priority handling, (de) multiplexing, and hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) processes between logical channels and transport channels. And the PHY layer may manage the processing of the physical data and control channels.

In some instances, a packet received by a layer from higher layers is called the service data unit (SDU) of that layer. The packet transmitted by the layer to lower layers is called the PDU of that layer. For example, packets received by a PDCP layer are called PDCP SDUs, and packets sent from the PDCP layer to an RLC layer are called PDCP PDUs.

In providing XR services, there may be scenarios where different packets (on the same or different flows) may be correlated to each other. PDU sets described above provide one example. The packets of a PDU set may be dependent on each other in a sense that, when one of these packet is discarded, the transmitter 208 may discard all the remaining packets of the same PDU Set in some cases. For example, 3GPP TS 38.323 V18.0.0 (2024-01-13) provides that

[w] hen the discardTimer or discardTimerForLowImportance expires for a PDCP SDU, the transmitting PDCP entity shall:

- if pdu-SetDiscard is configured:

- discard all PDCP SDUs belonging to the PDU set to which the PDCP SDU belong along with the corresponding PDCP Data PDUs;

NOTE 1: PDCP SDUs subsequently received from upper layers are also discarded if they belong to the PDU set.

Multi-modality signaling may enable various applications such as, for example, immersive virtual reality (VR) . Synchronization between different media components may be used to increase user experience. In some embodiments, a synchronization threshold can be defined between two media components. If the synchronization threshold is met, synchronized delivery of traffic flows associated with the media components may be desired. Synchronized delivery may provide that the packets of these traffic flows are to be delivered concurrently. Multi-modal coordination and synchronization developments related to intra-UE multi-modality aim to facilitate efficient and effective support for XR application with a plurality of QoS flows with multi-modal interdependencies, while meeting multi-modal QoS objective with respect to synchronization or coordination. Enhancements in this area may results in increased capacity or reduced power consumption.

3GPP TS 38.323 v18.1.0 (2024-04-02) defines delay-critical PDCP PDUs as packets have a remaining time till expiry of their discard timer smaller than a threshold. Due to the inter-dependency of different packets in a PDU Set, all packets in a PDU Set can be considered as “delay-critical” when at least one packet in the same PDU Set becomes urgent, when pdu-SetDiscarding is configured. “Delay-critical PDCP SDU: if pdu-SetDiscard is not configured, a PDCP SDU for which the remaining time till discardTimer expiry is less than the remainingTimeThreshold. If pdu-SetDiscard is configured, a PDCP SDU belonging to a PDU Set of which at least one PDCP SDU has the remaining time till discardTimer expiry less than the remainingTimeThreshold. ” 3GPP TS 38.323.

Interdependency similar to that defined for PDU sets may also be applied among packets in different flows for multi-modal synchronization. For example, when a packet on one flow becomes delay-critical, it may be desirable to quickly transmit a packet on a synchronized flow as well, even if the packet on the synchronized flow still has a long remaining time on its own discard timer. In some cases, interdependency may be present among packets of different PDU Sets even if there is no multi-modal synchronization requirement. For example, when a PDU Set is discarded, another PDU Set depending on it may also be discarded. Therefore, when a packet of one PDU Set becomes delay-critical, another packet of another (dependent) PDU Set may also be considered as delay-critical. First and second PDU sets may be interdependent if they have a one-way dependency (e.g., the first PDU set depends on the second PDU set or the second PDU set depends on the first PDU set, but not both) or if they have a two-way dependency (e.g., the first PDU set depends on the second PDU set and the second PDU set depends on the first PDU set) .

Embodiments of the present disclosure leverage these and other interdependency relationships for selective employment of transmission techniques that may be used to increase reliable or timely transmissions. For example, some embodiments describe selective PDCP duplication or rerouting based on cross-packet interdependencies.

FIG. 3 illustrates PDCP duplication 300 in accordance with some embodiments. The PDCP duplication 300 may enable low-latency use cases (e.g., ultra-reliable, low-latency communication (URLLC) , industrial internet of things (IoT) , etc. ) by facilitating transmission of packets that have to be delivered urgently and reliably. The PDCP duplication 300 may include a PDCP entity 304 submitting a number of copies of a PDCP PDU to different RLC entities 308 for diversity gain. FIG. 3 shows four RLC entities 308; however, other embodiments may include other numbers of RLC entities.

The RLC entities 308 may correspond to logical channels (LCHs) in a same MAC entity (carrier aggregation (CA) -based) or different MAC entities (dual connectivity (DC) -based) . In some embodiments, the PDCP duplication 300 may be activated and deactivated by the network (e.g., one or more components of the RAN 110 or core network 112) . For example, the network may send a MAC control element (CE) to activate/deactivate the PDCP duplication 300 for a DRB. In some embodiments, the network may activate PDCP duplication 300 by retransmission grant, which implies erroneous transmission of the previous transmission. This may be used to fulfil “survival time” requirements where consecutive message errors are not allowed. In order to make sure the next packet can be transmitted quickly and successfully after a transmission failure, duplication is activated. In some embodiments, the base station 108 may control the subset of RLC entities 308 to be activated for duplication via a MAC CE.

FIG. 4 illustrates rerouting 400 in accordance with some embodiments. The rerouting 400 may include a PDCP entity 404 associated with two RLC entities 408. The PDCP entity 404 may reroute a packet from a primary RLC entity to a secondary RLC entity. A primary RLC entity may also be referred to as a default or routed-from RLC entity. A secondary RLC entity may also be referred to as an alternative or routed-to RLC entity. Assuming the LCHs corresponding to these RLC entities 408 have different configurations, the reliability or latency target can be changed by switching the RLC leg. For example, the LCH of a RLC entity #0 may be configured with mapping restriction to a first resource (e.g., configured grant with lower reliability) , while the LCH of RLC entity #1 may be configured with mapping restriction to a second resource (e.g., configured grant with higher reliability) .

Embodiments describe using cross-packet, interdependence to selectively utilize duplication/rerouting enabled by a PDCP entity being associated with a plurality of RLC entities. This may reduce PDU Set discarding and may enable multi-modal synchronization.

Selective PDCP PDU duplication may be described as follows.

Referring again to FIG. 3, selective duplication may include the PDCP entity 304 autonomously duplicating some packets (instead of solely relying on the activation command form the network) . The PDCP entity 304 may determine if a PDCP PDU should be duplicated (for example, submit the PDCP PDU to more than one RLC entity) based on conditions associated with the PDCP PDU itself or conditions relating to at least one other packets.

Duplicating a target PDCP PDU based on conditions associated with another packet may be referred to as cross-packet interdependency (CPI) -based duplication. CPI-based duplication may be based on: whether one or more other packets in the same PDU Set as the target PDCP PDU have a remaining time till expiry of their respective discard timers smaller than a threshold; whether one or more other packets that are required to be synchronized with the target PDCP PDU (based on, for example, multi-modal synchronization requirement) have remaining time till expiry of their respective discard timers smaller than a threshold; whether one or more other packets in the same PDU Set as the target PDCP PDU are also duplicated; or whether one or more other packets that are required to be synchronized with the target PDCP PDU (based on, for example, e.g. multi-modal synchronization requirement) are also duplicated.

The “one or more other packets, ” for example, the packets associated with the target packet, may belong to the same DRB/QoS flow as the target PDCP PDU or a different DRB/QoS flow.

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 304 may first check if the target PDCP PDU itself is eligible for duplication, before checking the conditions relating to other packets for purposes of duplicating the target PDCP PDU. For example, the PDCP entity 304 may first determine whether the target PDCP PDU itself has a remaining time till discard timer expiry smaller than a threshold, before checking the remaining time till discard timer expiry of the one or more other packets.

The association between the target PDCP PDU and the one or more other packets may be based on the packets being in the same PDU set, or the packets belonging to traffic streams that are to be synchronized with one another (based on, for example, a multimodal synchronization requirements) .

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 304 may only apply the selective PDCP PDU duplication when the network-controlled (NC) duplication is deactivated. If the NC duplication is activated, the PDCP entity 304 may duplicate the packets without checking the criteria for the selective duplication.

In some embodiments, the base station 108 may configure the UE 104 to perform selective duplication. For example, the base station 108 may provide a separate radio resource control (RRC) configuration to enable/disable selective duplication when NC duplication is de-activated. In some embodiments, the base station 108 may additionally/alternatively provide a configuration to enable/disable CPI-based duplication.

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 304 may only check the conditions of other packets in the same PDU Set if pdu-SetDiscarding is configured. In this instance, the network configuring the pdu-SetDiscarding may indicate an association between the packets of the PDU set sufficient to support CPI-based duplication.

In some embodiments, when the PDCP entity 304 decides to duplicate a packet of a DRB, it may submit the PDCP PDU to all of the RLC entities associated with the DRB. In other embodiments, the PDCP entity 304 may select a specific subset of RLC entities associated with the DRB, and may only provide duplicates to the selected subset. The subset may include a plurality of RLC entities. In some embodiments, the subset may be autonomously selected by the PDCP entity 304 (e.g., without configuration or direction by the network) , the subset may be pre-configured (e.g., predefined by a 3GPP TS or configured by an RRC message) , or may be dynamically configured (or changed) by network signaling.

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 304 may apply CPI-based duplication only for packets having a certain importance level or packets that are considered important. For example, the PDCP entity 304 may apply CPI-based duplication for packets having an importance level above a predetermined threshold (e.g. important PDU sets) or below a predetermined threshold (e.g., less-important PDU sets) . Whether a packet is considered important or less important may be up to implementation.

FIG. 5 is an operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 in accordance with some embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may provide selective duplication that may be implemented by a UE such as, for example, UE 104, UE 1000, or components thereof; for example, PDCP entity 304 or baseband processor 1004A.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include, at 504, receiving a PDCP SDU from an upper layer. Upon receiving the PDCP SDU, a discard timer may be started. The discard timer may be a general discard timer or a discard timer for low-important PDU sets, for example, discardTimer or discardTimerForLowImportance as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331 v18.0.0 (2024-01-15) and 3GPP TS 38.323.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may further include, at 508, processing a PDCP PDU that corresponds to the PDCP SDU.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may further include, at 512, determining whether NC duplication is activated.

If it is determined, at 512, that NC duplication is activated, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may advance to 516. At 516, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include duplicating the PDCP PDU and submitting the original PDCP PDU and the duplicates to a plurality of RLC entities.

If it is determined, at 512, that NC duplication is not activated, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may advance to 520. At 520, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may determine whether selective duplication is enabled. If selective duplication is not enabled, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may advance to 524. At 524, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include submitting the PDCP PDU to one RLC entity.

If it is determined, at 520, that selective duplication is enabled, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may advance to 528. At 528, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include determining whether a remaining time until expiry of discard timer for the PDCP PDU (TTar) is smaller than a predetermined threshold (Thresh) . If the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the PDCP PDU is smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure may advance to duplicating the PDCP PDU and submitting to RLC entities at 516.

If it is determined, at 528, that the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the PDCP PDU is not smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure may advance to 532. At 532, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include determining whether a remaining time until expiry of discard timer for an associated PDCP PDU (T_Assoc) is smaller than the predetermined threshold (Thresh) . If the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the associated PDCP PDU is smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure may advance to duplicating the PDCP PDU and submitting to RLC entities at 516.

If it is determined, at 532, that the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the associated PDCP PDU is not smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may advance to 524. At 524, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 may include submitting the PDCP PDU to one RLC entity.

In some embodiments, the associated PDCP PDU may be any other packet in the same PDU set as the PDCP PDU. In other embodiments, the associated PDCP PDU may be any other packet that needs to be synchronized with the PDCP PDU. Packets that need to be synchronized may be on different DRBs. In some embodiments, if the network has activated one of the DRBs for duplication, then the other, synchronized DRBs may automatically be treated as conditionally activated for duplication. In some embodiments, if the network has explicitly set one of the DRBs as conditionally activated for PDCP duplication, then the other, synchronized DRBs may automatically be treated as enabled for CPI-based duplication.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 500 provides an example of a PDCP PDU duplication. In other examples, other details including, for example, other triggering criteria, may be used. For example, additional/alternative conditions for determining whether to check triggering criteria of an associated packet may be used for duplication of the target packet. In one example, additional packets may be checked (e.g., other packets of a PDU set) only when one packet fulfills criteria for duplication. In another example, in addition to (or as an alternative from) checking whether selective duplication is enabled, a PDCP entity may check to determine whether CPI-based duplication is enabled. This check may enable the criteria of block 532 in the event the criteria of block 528 is not satisfied.

Selective packet rerouting may be described as follows.

Referring again to FIG. 4, the PDCP entity 404 may autonomously reroute a some packets from a first RLC entity (e.g., a primary RLC entity) to an alternative RLC entity. The PDCP entity 404 may determine whether a target PDCP PDU should be rerouted (for example, submitted to an alternative RLC entity) based on conditions relating to the target PDCP PDU or conditions relating to at least one other packet. Rerouting a target PDCP PDU based on conditions related to another packet may be referred to as CPI-based rerouting.

CPI-based rerouting may be based on: whether one or more other packets in the same PDU set as the target PDCP PDU have a remaining time till expiry of their respective discard timer smaller than a threshold; whether one or more other packets that are required to be synchronized with the target PDCP PDU (based on, for example, a multi-modal synchronization requirement) have remaining time till expiry of their respective discard timer smaller than a threshold; whether one or more other packets in the same PDU Set as that target PDCP PDU are also rerouted; or whether one or more other packets that are required to be synchronized with the target PDCP PDU (based on, for example, multi-modal synchronization requirement) are also rerouted.

The “one or more other packets” associated with the target packet may belong to the same DRB/QoS flow or a different DRB/QoS flow.

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 404 may first check if the target PDCP PDU itself is eligible for rerouting, before checking the conditions relating to other packets for purposes of rerouting the target PDCP PDU. For example, the PDCP entity 404 may first determine whether the target PDCP PDU has a remaining time till discard timer expiry smaller than a threshold, before checking the timers of associated PDCP PDUs.

In some embodiments, the secondary RLC entity may be associated with the same MAC entity as the primary RLC entity. In other embodiments, the secondary RLC entity may be associated with a different MAC entity (e.g. dual connectivity) .

In some embodiments, the network may preconfigure the RLC entities that are eligible for rerouting.

In some embodiments, the network may preconfigure (per DRB or per RLC entity) whether selective rerouting or CPI-based rerouting is enabled.

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 404 may only check the conditions of other packets in the same PDU Set if pdu-SetDiscarding is configured. In this instance, the network configuring the pdu-SetDiscarding may indicate an association between the packets of the PDU set sufficient to support CPI-based rerouting

The LCHs corresponding to the primary and secondary RLC entities may have different configurations/parameters such as priority, prioritized bit rates (PBR) , LCH mapping restrictions, etc.

In some embodiments, the PDCP entity 404 may apply selective rerouting only for packets having a certain importance level or packets that are considered important. For example, the PDCP entity 404 may apply selective rerouting for packets having an importance level above a predetermined threshold (e.g. important PDU sets) or below a predetermined threshold (e.g., less-important PDU sets) . Whether a packet is considered important or less important may be up to implementation.

FIG. 6 is an operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 in accordance with some embodiments. The operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may provide a selective rerouting that may be implemented by a UE such as, for example, UE 104, UE 1000, or components thereof; for example, PDCP entity 404 or baseband processor 1004A

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may include, at 604, receiving a PDCP SDU from an upper layer. Upon receiving the PDCP SDU, a discard timer may be started. The discard timer may be a general discard timer or a discard timer for low-important PDU sets, for example, discardTimer or discardTimerForLowImportance as specified in 3GPP TS 38.331 and 3GPP TS 38.323.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may further include, at 608, processing a PDCP PDU that corresponds to the PDCP SDU.

At 612, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may include determining whether selective rerouting is enabled.

If it is determined, at 612, that selective rerouting is not enabled, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may advance to 616. At 616, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may include submitting the PDCP PDU to a primary RLC entity.

If it is determined, at 612, that selective rerouting is enabled, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may advance to 620. At 620, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may further include determining whether a remaining time until expiry of discard timer for the PDCP PDU (T_Tar) is smaller than a predetermined threshold (Thresh) . If the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the PDCP PDU is smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure may advance to rerouting the PDCP PDU by submitting to the secondary RLC entity at 618.

If it is determined, at 620, that the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the PDCP PDU is not smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure may advance to 624. At 624, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may include determining whether a remaining time until expiry of discard timer for an associated PDCP PDU (T_Assoc) is smaller than the predetermined threshold (Thresh) . If the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the associated PDCP PDU is smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may advance to rerouting the PDCP PDU by submitting to the secondary RLC entity at 618.

If it is determined, at 624, that the remaining time till expiry of discard timer for the associated PDCP PDU is not smaller than the predetermined threshold, the operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 may advance to submitting the PDCP PDU to the primary RLC entity at 616.

In some embodiments, the associated PDCP PDU may be any other packet in the same PDU set as the PDCP PDU. In other embodiments, the associated PDCP PDU may be any other packet that needs to be synchronized with the PDCP PDU. Packets that need to be synchronized may be on different DRBs. In some embodiments, if the network has enabled selective rerouting on one of the DRBs, then selective rerouting on other, dependent DRBs may automatically be treated as enabled.

The operation flow/algorithmic structure 600 provides one example of selective rerouting. In other examples, other details including, for example, other triggering criteria, may be used. For example, additional/alternative conditions for determining whether to check triggering criteria of an associated packet may be used for rerouting of the target packet. In one example, additional packets may be checked (e.g., other packets of a PDU set) only when one packet fulfills criteria for rerouting. In another example, in addition to (or as alternative from) checking whether selective rerouting is activated, a PDCP entity may check to determine whether CPI-based rerouting is activated. This check may enable the criteria of block 624 in the event the criteria of block 620 is not satisfied.

In some embodiments, a PDCP entity may determine if duplication or rerouting should be applied to a PDCP PDU based on whether it corresponds to a delay-critical PDCP SDU.

The thresholds for remaining time till expiry of discard timer described herein with respect to target packet or associated packet may be a remaining time threshold, for example, remainingTimeThreshold defined in 3GPP 38.331 and 38.323, or it could be another threshold.

While some embodiments describe the remaining time till expiry of discard timer as criteria to determine whether to selectively duplicate or reroute packets, other embodiments may use additional/alternative attributes relating to the status/conditions of the packet itself and other inter-dependent packets. For example, additional/alternative attributes may include: the PDU Set size (e.g. in bytes) ; the number of packets in the PDU Set; the total data volume of a DRB; the total delay-critical data volume of a DRB (for example, the UE is able to route PDCP PDU when the delay-critical data volume exceeds a threshold -the threshold, which may be referred to as ul-DelayCriticalDataSplitThreshold, may be smaller than the ul-DataSplitThreshold specified in the legacy networks) ; whether PSI-based discarding is activated on a DRB; whether the PDCP PDU corresponds to the end-PDU of the PDU Set; whether the delay is caused by interference or congestion, or any other reason.

In some embodiments, when a PDCP entity determines to duplicate or reroute a PDCP PDU, the PDCP entity may determine the RLC entity (or RLC entities) to submit the PDCP PDU by itself (for example, without direct control by the network) . In some embodiments, the PDCP entity may select the RLC entity (ies) based on: which RLC entities have been configured as “eligible for re-routing, ” assuming only some of the RLC entities are allowed for the UE to re-route; which RLC entities have better/worse link quality statistics (e.g. in terms of throughput and/or latency performance) ; which RLC entities have more/less buffered data (e.g. the volume or number of pending data/packets in each RLC entity) ; the LCH parameters associated to each RLC entity, such as priority, prioritized bit rate, LCH mapping restriction, etc.; which RLC entities are associated to the LCHs mapping to primary or secondary carrier/serving cell, assuming carrier aggregation; which RLC entities are associated to the LCHs mapping to master cell group (MCG) or secondary cell group (SCG) , assuming dual connectivity -this may also depend on which cell group this radio bearer terminates) ; which RLC entities are associated to the LCHs mapping to primary carrier /serving cell (s) with better/worse statistics (e.g. lower HARQ error rate) ; which RLC entities are associated to the LCHs mapping to lower/mid/higher frequency range/band (e.g. Frequency Range 1 or Frequency Range 2) ; or which RLC entities are associated to the LCHs mapping to serving cells or serving cell groups that are activated.

In some embodiments, any of the proposed UE/PDCP behavior (e.g. selective duplication or selective rerouting) could dynamically enabled/disabled by L1/L2 signaling from the network. The L1/L2 signaling may include, but is not limited to, a PDCP control PDU, MAC CE, or DCI.

FIG. 7 illustrates a MAC CE 700 in accordance with some embodiments. The MAC CE 700, which may also be referred to as a conditional duplication activation/deactivation MAC CE, may be a bitmap where each bit represents a DRB. If the bit value is 0, selective duplication is disabled on the DRB corresponding to this bit. If the bit value is 1, selective duplication is enabled on the DRB corresponding to this bit.

To support multi-modal services, the network may configure the UE 104 with information as to the synchronization requirements for various DRBs.

FIG. 8 is an operational flow/algorithmic structure 800 in accordance with some embodiments. The operational flow/algorithmic structure 800 may be performed by a UE such as UE 104, UE 1000, or components thereof, for example, PDCP entity 304, PDCP entity 404, or baseband processor 1004A.

The operational flow/algorithmic structure 800 may include, at 804, determining first criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is not satisfied. The first criteria may be based on conditions associated with a first PDU. For example, the first criteria may not be satisfied if a remaining time until expiration of a discard timer associated with the first PDU is not less than a predetermined threshold. In some embodiments, the first criteria may be related to activation status of certain functionality of the corresponding DRB, such as whether PDCP duplication is already activated in this DRB.

The operational flow/algorithmic structure 800 may further include, at 808, determining second criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is satisfied. The second criteria may be based on conditions associated with a second PDU that is associated with the first PDU. An association between the first and second PDUs may be determined ifboth the first PDU and the second PDU belong to a PDU set; or if the first PDU is associated with a first traffic flow and the second PDU is associated with a second traffic flow that is synchronized with the first traffic flow. Synchronizations between the traffic flow may be determined based on network configurations or by some other manner. In some embodiments, the first and second PDUs may belong to different PDU sets, and an association between the first and second PDUs may be determined if the PDU sets they respectively belong to are inter-dependent.

The second criteria may be satisfied when it is determined that a remaining time until expiration of a discard timer associated with the second PDU is less than a predetermined threshold.

In some embodiments, the determination of whether the first or second criteria is satisfied may additionally/alternatively be based on: a PDU set size; a number of packets in a PDU set; a total data volume of a data radio bearer; a total delay-critical data volume of a data radio bearer; whether PSI-based discarding is activated on a data radio bearer; whether the first PDU corresponds to an end-PDU of the PDU set; or whether delay is caused by interference or congestion.

The operational flow/algorithmic structure 800 may further include, at 812, duplicating or rerouting the first PDU based on said determining the second criteria is satisfied.

In some embodiments, the first PDU comprises a PDCP PDU.

In some embodiments, the duplicating or rerouting of 812 may include generating one or more duplicates of the first PDCP PDU; providing the PDCP PDU to a first RLC entity; and providing the one or more duplicates of the PDCP PDU to one or more additional RLC entities, respectively. The PDCP PDU is associated with a DRB and the first RLC entity and the one or more additional RLC entities may be a subset of a total number of RLC entities associated with the DRB. The subset may be autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network.

In some embodiments, the duplicating or rerouting of 812 may include rerouting the PDCP PDU from a RLC entity to a second RLC entity; and providing the first PDCP PDU to the second RLC entity for transmission. The first RLC entity may be associated with a first MAC entity and the second RLC entity may be associated with a second MAC entity. The second RLC entity may be autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network. The first RLC entity and the second RLC entity include different priorities, prioritized bit rates, or LCH mapping restrictions.

In some embodiments, the first PDU may be associated with a first DRB/QoS and the second PDU may be associated with a second DRB/QoS flow.

In some embodiments, the selective duplication/rerouting described in the operation flow/algorithmic structure 800 may be performed if a first condition is detected. For example, the first condition may include the first PDU has an importance level greater than a predetermined threshold. In some embodiments, if the first PDU and the second PDU both belong to a PDU set, the first condition may additionally/alternatively include PDU set discarding being configured.

In some embodiments, the first condition may additionally/alternatively be based on network command that enables selective duplication/rerouting. The network command may be a configuration element received in a PDCP PDU, a MAC CE, or DCI.

FIG. 9 is an operational flow/algorithmic structure 900 in accordance with some embodiments. The operational flow/algorithmic structure 900 may be performed by a base station such as base station 108, network device 1100, or components thereof, for example, processors 1104A.

The operational flow/algorithmic structure 900 may include, at 904, generating a configuration element to enable selective PDCP PDU duplication or rerouting.

The operational flow/algorithmic structure 900 may further include, at 908, generating a signal that includes the configuration element, the signal to be transmitted to a user equipment. The signal may include a PDCP control PDU or DCI.

In some embodiments, the signal generated at 908 may include a MAC CE. The MAC CE may include a plurality of values that respectively correspond to a plurality of DRBs. Individual values of the bitmap indicate whether selective duplication is enabled for a respective DRB.

FIG. 10 illustrates a UE 1000 in accordance with some embodiments. The UE 1000 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with UE 104.

The UE 1000 may be any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such as, for example, mobile phones, computers, tablets, industrial wireless sensors (for example, microphones, carbon dioxide sensors, pressure sensors, humidity sensors, thermometers, motion sensors, accelerometers, laser scanners, fluid level sensors, inventory sensors, electric voltage/current meters, or actuators) , video surveillance/monitoring devices (for example, cameras or video cameras) , wearable devices (for example, a smart watch) , or Internet-of-things devices.

The UE 1000 may include processors 1004, RF interface circuitry 1008, memory/storage 1012, user interface 1016, sensors 1020, driver circuitry 1022, power management integrated circuit (PMIC) 1024, antenna 1026, and battery 1028. The components of the UE 1000 may be implemented as integrated circuits (ICs) , portions thereof, discrete electronic devices, or other modules, logic, hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. The block diagram of FIG. 10 is intended to show a high-level view of some of the components of the UE 1000. However, some of the components shown may be omitted, additional components may be present, and different arrangement of the components shown may occur in other implementations.

The components of the UE 1000 may be coupled with various other components over one or more interconnects 1032, which may represent any type of interface, input/output, bus (local, system, or expansion) , transmission line, trace, or optical connection that allows various circuit components (on common or different chips or chipsets) to interact with one another.

The processors 1004 may include processor circuitry such as, for example, baseband processor circuitry (BB) 1004A, central processor unit circuitry (CPU) 1004B, and graphics processor unit circuitry (GPU) 1004C. The processors 1004 may include any type of circuitry or processor circuitry that executes or otherwise operates computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, or functional processes from memory/storage 1012 to cause the UE 1000 to perform delay-adaptive operations as described herein. The processors 1004 may also include interface circuitry 1004D to communicatively couple the processor circuitry with one or more other components of the UE 1000.

In some embodiments, the baseband processor 1004A may access a communication protocol stack 1036 in the memory/storage 1012 to communicate over a 3GPP compatible network. In general, the baseband processor 1004A may access the communication protocol stack 1036 to: perform user plane functions at a PHY layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, SDAP layer, and PDU layer; and perform control plane functions at a PHY layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, RRC layer, and a NAS layer. In some embodiments, the PHY layer operations may additionally/alternatively be performed by the components of the RF interface circuitry 1008.

The baseband processor 1004A may generate or process baseband signals or waveforms that carry information in 3GPP-compatible networks. In some embodiments, the waveforms for NR may be based on cyclic prefix OFDM (CP-OFDM) in the uplink or downlink, and discrete Fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) in the uplink.

The memory/storage 1012 may include one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media that includes instructions (for example, communication protocol stack 1036) that may be executed by one or more of the processors 1004 to cause the UE 1000 to perform various selective duplication or rerouting operations described herein.

The memory/storage 1012 includes any type of volatile or non-volatile memory that may be distributed throughout the UE 1000. In some embodiments, some of the memory/storage 1012 may be located on the processors 1004 themselves (for example, memory/storage 1012 may be part of a chipset that corresponds to the baseband processor 1004A) , while other memory/storage 1012 is external to the processors 1004 but accessible thereto via a memory interface. The memory/storage 1012 may include any suitable volatile or non-volatile memory such as, but not limited to, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) , static random access memory (SRAM) , erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM) , electrically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM) , Flash memory, solid-state memory, or any other type of memory device technology.

The RF interface circuitry 1008 may include transceiver circuitry and a radio frequency front module (RFEM) that allows the UE 1000 to communicate with other devices over a radio access network. The RF interface circuitry 1008 may include various elements arranged in transmit or receive paths. These elements may include, for example, switches, mixers, amplifiers, filters, synthesizer circuitry, and control circuitry.

In the receive path, the RFEM may receive a radiated signal from an air interface via antenna 1026 and proceed to filter and amplify (with a low-noise amplifier) the signal. The signal may be provided to a receiver of the transceiver that down-converts the RF signal into a baseband signal that is provided to the baseband processor of the processors 1004.

In the transmit path, the transmitter of the transceiver up-converts the baseband signal received from the baseband processor and provides the RF signal to the RFEM. The RFEM may amplify the RF signal through a power amplifier prior to the signal being radiated across the air interface via the antenna 1026.

In various embodiments, the RF interface circuitry 1008 may be configured to transmit/receive signals in a manner compatible with NR access technologies.

The antenna 1026 may include antenna elements to convert electrical signals into radio waves to travel through the air and to convert received radio waves into electrical signals. The antenna elements may be arranged into one or more antenna panels. The antenna 1026 may have antenna panels that are omnidirectional, directional, or a combination thereof to enable beamforming and multiple input, multiple output communications. The antenna 1026 may include microstrip antennas, printed antennas fabricated on the surface of one or more printed circuit boards, patch antennas, or phased array antennas. The antenna 1026 may have one or more panels designed for specific frequency bands including bands in FR1 or FR2.

The user interface 1016 includes various input/output (I/O) devices designed to enable user interaction with the UE 1000. The user interface 1016 includes input device circuitry and output device circuitry. Input device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for accepting an input including, inter alia, one or more physical or virtual buttons (for example, a reset button) , a physical keyboard, keypad, mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, microphones, scanner, headset, or the like. The output device circuitry includes any physical or virtual means for showing information or otherwise conveying information, such as sensor readings, actuator position (s) , or other like information. Output device circuitry may include any number or combinations of audio or visual display, including, inter alia, one or more simple visual outputs/indicators (for example, binary status indicators such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) and multi-character visual outputs, or more complex outputs such as display devices or touchscreens (for example, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) , LED displays, quantum dot displays, and projectors) , with the output of characters, graphics, multimedia objects, and the like being generated or produced from the operation of the UE 1000.

The sensors 1020 may include devices, modules, or subsystems whose purpose is to detect events or changes in their environment and send the information (sensor data) about the detected events to some other device, module, or subsystem. Examples of such sensors include inertia measurement units comprising accelerometers, gyroscopes, or magnetometers; microelectromechanical systems or nanoelectromechanical systems comprising 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, or magnetometers; level sensors; flow sensors; temperature sensors (for example, thermistors) ; pressure sensors; barometric pressure sensors; gravimeters; altimeters; image capture devices (for example, cameras or lensless apertures) ; light detection and ranging sensors; proximity sensors (for example, infrared radiation detector and the like) ; depth sensors; ambient light sensors; ultrasonic transceivers; and microphones or other like audio capture devices.

The driver circuitry 1022 may include software and hardware elements that operate to control particular devices that are embedded in the UE 1000, attached to the UE 1000, or otherwise communicatively coupled with the UE 1000. The driver circuitry 1022 may include individual drivers allowing other components to interact with or control various input/output (I/O) devices that may be present within, or connected to, the UE 1000. For example, driver circuitry 1022 may include a display driver to control and allow access to a display device, a touchscreen driver to control and allow access to a touchscreen interface, sensor drivers to obtain sensor readings of sensors 1020 and control and allow access to sensors 1020, drivers to obtain actuator positions of electro-mechanic components or control and allow access to the electro-mechanic components, a camera driver to control and allow access to an embedded image capture device, audio drivers to control and allow access to one or more audio devices.

The PMIC 1024 may manage power provided to various components of the UE 1000. In particular, with respect to the processors 1004, the PMIC 1024 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion.

A battery 1028 may power the UE 1000, although in some examples the UE 1000 may be mounted deployed in a fixed location and may have a power supply coupled to an electrical grid. The battery 1028 may be a lithium ion battery, a metal-air battery, such as a zinc-air battery, an aluminum-air battery, a lithium-air battery, and the like. In some implementations, such as in vehicle-based applications, the battery 1028 may be a typical lead-acid automotive battery.

FIG. 11 illustrates a network device 1100 in accordance with some embodiments. The network device 1100 may be similar to and substantially interchangeable with base station 108 or a device of the core network 112 or external data network 120.

The network device 1100 may include processors 1104, RF interface circuitry 1108 (if implemented as a base station) , core network (CN) interface circuitry 1114, memory/storage circuitry 1112, and antenna structure 1126.

The components of the network device 1100 may be coupled with various other components over one or more interconnects 1128.

The processors 1104, RF interface circuitry 1108, memory/storage circuitry 1112 (including communication protocol stack 1110) , antenna structure 1126, and interconnects 1128 may be similar to like-named elements shown and described with respect to FIG. 10.

The processors 1104 may include processor circuitry such as, for example, baseband processor circuitry (BB) 1104A, central processor unit circuitry (CPU) 1104B, and graphics processor unit circuitry (GPU) 1104C. The processors 1104 may include any type of circuitry or processor circuitry that executes or otherwise operates computer-executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, or functional processes from memory/storage circuitry 1112 to cause the UE 1400 to perform configuration of selective duplication or rerouting operations as described herein. The processors 1104 may also include interface circuitry 1104D to communicatively couple the processor circuitry with one or more other components of the network device 1100.

The CN interface circuitry 1114 may provide connectivity to a core network, for example, a 5^th Generation Core network (5GC) using a 5GC-compatible network interface protocol such as carrier Ethernet protocols, or some other suitable protocol. Network connectivity may be provided to/from the network device 1100 via a fiber optic or wireless backhaul. The CN interface circuitry 1114 may include one or more dedicated processors or FPGAs to communicate using one or more of the aforementioned protocols. In some implementations, the CN interface circuitry 1114 may include multiple controllers to provide connectivity to other networks using the same or different protocols.

It is well understood that the use of personally identifiable information should follow privacy policies and practices that are generally recognized as meeting or exceeding industry or governmental requirements for maintaining the privacy of users. In particular, personally identifiable information data should be managed and handled so as to minimize risks of unintentional or unauthorized access or use, and the nature of authorized use should be clearly indicated to users.

For one or more embodiments, at least one of the components set forth in one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to perform one or more operations, techniques, processes, or methods as set forth in the example section below. For example, the baseband circuitry as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below. For another example, circuitry associated with a UE, base station, or network element as described above in connection with one or more of the preceding figures may be configured to operate in accordance with one or more of the examples set forth below in the example section.

Examples

In the following sections, further exemplary embodiments are provided.

Example 1 includes a method comprising: determining, based on conditions associated with a first protocol data unit (PDU) , first criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is not satisfied; determining, based on conditions associated with a second PDU that is associated with the first PDU, second criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is satisfied; and duplicating or rerouting the first PDU based on said determining the second criteria is satisfied.

Example 2 includes the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the first PDU comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU and duplicating or rerouting comprises: generating one or more duplicates of the first PDCP PDU; providing the PDCP PDU to a first radio link control (RLC) entity; and providing the one or more duplicates of the PDCP PDU to one or more additional RLC entities, respectively.

Example 3 includes a method of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein the PDCP PDU is associated with a data radio bearer (DRB) and the first RLC entity and the one or more additional RLC entities comprise a subset of a total number of RLC entities associated with the DRB, wherein the subset is autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network.

Example 4 includes a method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the first PDU comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU and duplicating or rerouting comprises: rerouting the PDCP PDU from a first radio link control (RLC) entity to a second RLC entity; and providing the first PDCP PDU to the second RLC entity for transmission.

Example 5 includes a method of example 4 some other example herein, wherein the first RLC entity is associated with a first media access control (MAC) entity and the second RLC entity is associated with a second MAC entity.

Example 6 includes the method of example 4 some other example herein, wherein the second RLC entity is autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network.

Example 7 includes the method of example 4 some other example herein, wherein the first RLC entity and the second RLC entity include different priorities, prioritized bit rates, or logical channel (LCH) mapping restrictions.

Example 8 includes a method of example 1 or some other example herein, further comprising: determining the second PDU is associated with the first PDU based on both the first PDU and the second PDU belonging to a PDU set; determining the second PDU is associated with the first PDU based on the first PDU being associated with a first traffic flow and the second PDU being associated with a second traffic flow that is synchronized with the first traffic flow; or determining the second PDU is associated with the first PDU based on the first PDU belonging to a first PDU set and the second PDU belonging to a second PDU set, wherein the first PDU set and the second PDU are interdependent.

Example 9 includes the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein determining the second criteria is satisfied comprises: determining a remaining time until expiration of a discard timer associated with the second PDU is less than a predetermined threshold.

Example 10 includes the method of example 1 or some other example herein, further comprising determining the first criteria is not satisfied or determining the second criteria is satisfied based on: a PDU set size; a number of packets in a PDU set; a total data volume of a data radio bearer; a total delay-critical data volume of a data radio bearer; whether PDU set importance (PSI) -based discarding is activated on a data radio bearer; whether the first PDU corresponds to an end-PDU of the PDU set; or whether delay is caused by interference or congestion.

Example 11 includes the method of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the first PDU is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB) or quality of service (QoS) flow and the second PDU is associated with a second DRB or QoS flow.

Example 12 includes the method of example 1 or some other example herein, further comprising: detecting a first condition; and determining, based on detecting the first condition, whether selective duplication or rerouting is enabled.

Example 13 includes the method of example 12 or some other example herein, wherein detecting the first condition comprises: determining the first PDU has an importance level greater than a predetermined threshold.

Example 14 includes the method of example 12 or some other example herein, wherein the first PDU and the second PDU both belong to a PDU set and detecting the first condition comprises: determining PDU set discarding is configured.

Example 15 includes the method of example 12 or some other example herein, wherein detecting the first condition comprises: detecting a network command received via a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU, a media access control (MAC) control element, or downlink control information.

Example 16 includes the method of example 12 or some other example herein, wherein detecting the first condition further comprises: determining network-controlled duplication is not activated.

Example 17 includes a method comprising: generating a configuration element to enable selective packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocol data unit (PDU) duplication or rerouting; and generating a signal that includes the configuration element, the signal to be transmitted to a user equipment.

Example 18 includes the method of example 17 or some other example herein, wherein the signal comprises a PDCP control PDU or downlink control information (DCI) .

Example 19 includes the method of example 17 or some other example herein, wherein the signal comprises a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) .

Example 20 includes the method of example 19 or some other example herein, wherein the MAC CE includes a plurality of values that respectively correspond to a plurality of data radio bearers, wherein individual values of the plurality of values indicate whether selective duplication is enabled for a respective DRB.

Another example may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.

Another example may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.

Another example may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.

Another example may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof.

Another example may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.

Another example may include a signal as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof.

Another example may include a datagram, information element, packet, frame, segment, PDU, or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Another example may include a signal encoded with data as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Another example may include a signal encoded with a datagram, IE, packet, frame, segment, PDU, or message as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof, or otherwise described in the present disclosure.

Another example may include an electromagnetic signal carrying computer-readable instructions, wherein execution of the computer-readable instructions by one or more processors is to cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.

Another example may include a computer program comprising instructions, wherein execution of the program by a processing element is to cause the processing element to carry out the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.

Another example may include a signal in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Another example may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Another example may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Another example may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Any of the above-described examples may be combined with any other example (or combination of examples) , unless explicitly stated otherwise. The foregoing description of one or more implementations provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the scope of embodiments to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of various embodiments.

Although the embodiments above have been described in considerable detail, numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications.

Claims

A method comprising:

determining, based on conditions associated with a first protocol data unit (PDU) , first criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is not satisfied;

determining, based on conditions associated with a second PDU that is associated with the first PDU, second criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is satisfied; and

duplicating or rerouting the first PDU based on said determining the second criteria is satisfied.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first PDU comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU and duplicating or rerouting comprises:

generating one or more duplicates of the first PDCP PDU;

providing the PDCP PDU to a first radio link control (RLC) entity; and

providing the one or more duplicates of the PDCP PDU to one or more additional RLC entities, respectively.
The method of claim 2, wherein the PDCP PDU is associated with a data radio bearer (DRB) and the first RLC entity and the one or more additional RLC entities comprise a subset of a total number of RLC entities associated with the DRB, wherein the subset is autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first PDU comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU and duplicating or rerouting comprises:

rerouting the PDCP PDU from a first radio link control (RLC) entity to a second RLC entity; and

providing the first PDCP PDU to the second RLC entity for transmission.
The method of claim 4, wherein the first RLC entity is associated with a first media access control (MAC) entity and the second RLC entity is associated with a second MAC entity.
The method of claim 4, wherein the second RLC entity is autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network.
The method of claim 4, wherein the first RLC entity and the second RLC entity include different priorities, prioritized bit rates, or logical channel (LCH) mapping restrictions.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the second PDU is associated with the first PDU based on both the first PDU and the second PDU belonging to a PDU set;

determining the second PDU is associated with the first PDU based on the first PDU being associated with a first traffic flow and the second PDU being associated with a second traffic flow that is synchronized with the first traffic flow; or

determining the second PDU is associated with the first PDU based on the first PDU belonging to a first PDU set and the second PDU belonging to a second PDU set, wherein the first PDU set and the second PDU are interdependent.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the second criteria is satisfied comprises:

determining a remaining time until expiration of a discard timer associated with the second PDU is less than a predetermined threshold.
The method of claim 1, further comprising determining the first criteria is not satisfied or determining the second criteria is satisfied based on: a PDU set size; a number of packets in a PDU set; a total data volume of a data radio bearer; a total delay-critical data volume of a data radio bearer; whether PDU set importance (PSI) -based discarding is activated on a data radio bearer; whether the first PDU corresponds to an end-PDU of the PDU set; or whether delay is caused by interference or congestion.
The method of claim 1, wherein the first PDU is associated with a first data radio bearer (DRB) or quality of service (QoS) flow and the second PDU is associated with a second DRB or QoS flow.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a first condition; and

determining, based on detecting the first condition, whether selective duplication or rerouting is enabled.
The method of claim 12, wherein detecting the first condition comprises:

determining the first PDU has an importance level greater than a predetermined threshold.
The method of claim 12, wherein the first PDU and the second PDU both belong to a PDU set and detecting the first condition comprises:

determining PDU set discarding is configured.
The method of claim 12, wherein detecting the first condition comprises:

detecting a network command received via a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU, a media access control (MAC) control element, or downlink control information.
The method of claim 12, wherein detecting the first condition further comprises:

determining network-controlled duplication is not activated.
One or more computer-readable media having instructions that, when executed, cause processing circuitry to:

generate a configuration element to enable selective packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) protocol data unit (PDU) duplication or rerouting; and

generate a signal that includes the configuration element, the signal to be transmitted to a user equipment.
The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the signal comprises a PDCP control PDU or downlink control information (DCI) .
The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the signal comprises a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) .
The one or more computer-readable media of claim 19, wherein the MAC CE includes a plurality of values that respectively correspond to a plurality of data radio bearers, wherein individual values of the plurality of values indicate whether selective duplication is enabled for a respective DRB.
A baseband processor comprising:

processing circuitry to:

determine, based on conditions associated with a first protocol data unit (PDU) , first criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is not satisfied;

determine, based on conditions associated with a second PDU that is associated with the first PDU, second criteria for duplicating or rerouting the first PDU is satisfied; and

duplicate or reroute the first PDU based on said determining the second criteria is satisfied; and

interface circuitry coupled with the processing circuitry, the interface circuitry to communicatively couple the baseband processor to a component of a device.
The baseband processor of claim 21, wherein the first PDU comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU and to duplicate or reroute the processing circuitry is to:

generate one or more duplicates of the first PDCP PDU;

provide the PDCP PDU to a first radio link control (RLC) entity; and

provide the one or more duplicates of the PDCP PDU to one or more additional RLC entities, respectively.
The baseband processor of claim 22, wherein the PDCP PDU is associated with a data radio bearer (DRB) and the first RLC entity and the one or more additional RLC entities comprise a subset of a total number of RLC entities associated with the DRB, wherein the subset is autonomously selected by a PDCP entity, preconfigured, or signaled by a network.
The baseband processor of claim 21, wherein the first PDU comprises a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) PDU and to duplicate or reroute the processing circuitry is to:

reroute the PDCP PDU from a first radio link control (RLC) entity to a second RLC entity; and

provide the first PDCP PDU to the second RLC entity for transmission.
The baseband processor of claim 24, wherein the first RLC entity is associated with a first media access control (MAC) entity and the second RLC entity is associated with a second MAC entity.