Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods, apparatuses and computer program products for enforcing a rule related to traffic routing. A method implemented at a terminal device comprises receiving a rule related to traffic routing for traffic and enforcement information for the rule; and controlling enforcement of the rule based on the enforcement information. The enforcement information indicates whether a modification to a PDU session associated with the traffic due to the enforcement of the rule is allowed.

Abstract: Various example embodiments for supporting stateful explicit paths are presented herein. Various example embodiments for supporting stateful explicit paths may be configured to support communication of a packet along a path in an Internet Protocol (IP) network from a first node to a second node, wherein the path includes a set of hops, wherein the packet includes a tuple configured to identify the path, wherein the tuple includes a first IP address of the first node, a second IP address of the second node, and a path identifier of the path, wherein the path identifier of the path is a unique identifier assigned to the path, wherein the communication of the packet along the path from the first node to the second node is supported based on state information configured to map the tuple to a next hop in the set of hops of the path.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) communications. For example, scheduling information is received at a terminal device from a network device, the scheduling information at least indicates physical resource blocks shared by a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of the terminal device and a further DMRS of at least one further terminal device, and different sub-carriers allocated to the DMRS and the further DMRS in each of physical resource blocks, and the number of physical resource blocks is indivisible by a total number of the terminal device and the at least one further terminal device. The DMRS is generated, and a length of the DMRS is determined based on the number of physical resource blocks and the number of at least one further terminal device. The DMRS is transmitted to the network device on the sub-carriers allocated to the DMRS in the physical resource blocks.

Abstract: An external processing system includes a port configured to exchange signals with a router and one or more processors configured to instantiate an operating system and a hypervisor based on information provided by the router in response to the external processing system being connected to the router. The processors implement a user plane layer that generates feedback representative of a processing load and provides the feedback to the router via the port. The router includes a port allocated to an external processing system and a controller that provides the information representing the operating system and hypervisor in response to connection of the external processing system. The controller also receives feedback indicating a processing load at the external processing system. A queue holds packets prior to providing the packets to the external processing system. The controller discards one or more of the packets from the queue based on the feedback.

Abstract: An apparatus, method and computer program is described comprising: executing, in a first mode of operation, a MIMO for one or more user devices eligible to transmit data in a slot of a packet scheduler, to generate MIMO operation outputs; obtaining, in a second mode of operation, estimated MIMO operation outputs for said one or more user devices from a lookup table; and determining whether to operate in the first mode of operation or the second mode operation.

Abstract: A first device in a communication network receives from at least one second device in the communication network, a first request for acquiring a token, the token being permission for communicating with a third device. Based on the first request, a device from the at least one second device and the first device as a communication device is selected for providing a communication service to the third device in the communication network; and the token is transmitted to the communication device. The communication device receives the token for communicating with the third device. Other devices receive key information associated with communication of the third device from the first device, and monitor data associated with the communication of the third device.

Abstract: In order to facilitate sending of different kinds of channel feedback information, a periodic information transmission in a shared uplink channel is configured, PUSCH, and required resources are allocated for the transmission.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for Service Level Agreement managements in distributed cloud environments. A method comprises monitoring enforcements of Service Level Agreements for services provided to a plurality of tenants by a cloud provider; detecting a possible Service Level Agreement violation for a service provided to one tenant of the plurality of tenants, wherein the possible Service Level Agreement violation is related to performance or security requirements; and automatically mitigating the possible Service Level Agreement violation with cooperation with at least one of a cloud manager and a security management system of the cloud provider. The possible Service Level Agreement violation can involve a possible confliction between performance requirements and security requirements, and mitigating the possible Service Level Agreement violation comprises resolving the possible confiction for self-healing. Methods for an automatic Service Level Agreement update is also provided.

Abstract: A method for verifying an operation of a mobile radio communication network is provided, wherein the method comprises sending an Initiation Message from a first network entity to a second network entity, the Initiation Message defining an undo request and comprising an UNDO section defining an undo area, a TRIGGERING_CM section indicating changes to the network, and an ASSISTANCE section; receiving an Assistance-Response Message, the Assistance-Response Message comprising the UNDO section, and an ASSISTED_CM section; and sending an Assistance-Acknowledge Message including an ACK flag and the UNDO section from the first network entity to the second network entity.

Abstract: An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to perform determining, per a communication service to which resources are to be allocated, a metric value using a first predefined set of rules, determining, per a sensing service to which resources are to be allocated, a metric value using a second predefined set of rules, sorting communication services to which resources are to be allocated and sensing services to which resources are to be allocated based on the metric values to a sorted order using a third rule, and allocating resources for the communication services and the sensing services based on the sorted order.

Abstract: In one embodiment, the method includes if a first network device having a first path with a second network device determines that a terminal device is to be handed over from the second network device to a third network device, establishing a second path between the first and third network devices; disabling data transmission for the terminal device via the first path; transmitting a handover indication to the second network device to cause it to suspend transmission of buffered data to the terminal device and to transmit remaining data to the third network device; and upon receiving a completion indication from the second network device that transmission of the remaining data is complete, enabling data transmission for the terminal device via the second path.

Abstract: Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for signal block mapping are provided. One method includes configuring, by a network node (e.g., base station or eNB), a group of discovery signaling blocks. The method may then include mapping the discovery signaling blocks of the group onto a subframe structure, including the group information into each of the discovery signaling blocks, and transmitting the discovery signaling blocks in the subframe structure.

Abstract: Various example embodiments for supporting control plane resiliency testing in a software defined network are presented. Various example embodiments for supporting control plane resiliency testing in a software defined network may be configured to support control plane resiliency testing in a software defined network based on use of failure injection. Various example embodiments for supporting control plane resiliency testing in a software defined network based on use of failure injection may be configured to support control plane resiliency testing in a software defined network by injecting failures into the software defined network, monitoring the software defined network after the injection of the failures and collecting results data from the software defined network related to the injection of the failures, and evaluating resiliency of the control plane of the software defined network based on the results data from the software defined network related to the injection of the failures.

Abstract: An apparatus (100) for processing radio frequency signals, comprising a first antenna system (110) having a controllable first antenna characteristic and a second antenna system (120) having a controllable second antenna characteristic, wherein the first antenna system is configured to operate in a first frequency range, wherein the second antenna system is configured to operate in a second frequency range which is different from the first frequency range.

Abstract: An end-to-end telemetry system for a Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) communication network having multiple end-servers. The system includes an RDMA tracer for each end-server, one or more programmable data planes, and a telemetry collector. Each RDMA tracer extracts host-level telemetry information for one or more RDMA sessions associated with the corresponding end-server. Each programmable data plane extracts network-level telemetry information for one or more RDMA sessions associated with the programmable data plane. The telemetry collector (i) receives the host-level telemetry information from the RDMA tracers and the network-level telemetry information from the one or more programmable data planes and (ii) generates telemetry reports based on the host-level and network-level telemetry information. In some implementations, the system enables real-time monitoring of RDMA traffic at the RDMA protocol level granularity across all RDMA-enabled workloads for different use cases.

Abstract: A network element includes processing circuitry configured to cause the network element to determine whether a received information packet is a special packet based on a domain header of the received information packet, extract a first value from the domain header of the received information packet in response to determining that the received information packet is a special packet, and modify a forward information base at the network element based on the domain header and the first value.

Abstract: An optical receiver capable of substantially measuring the phase and amplitude of a received intensity- or amplitude-modulated optical signal by performing digital-signal processing. In an example embodiment, a DSP of the receiver operates to reduce the detrimental effects of relative phase noise between the optical reference oscillator and optical carrier based on an optical pilot present in the received optical signal. The DSP may employ a sequence of digital filters configured to select a signal component that represents a non-vestigial modulation sideband and then perform signal equalization thereon. The signal equalization may include but is not limited to dispersion compensation. In some embodiments, the optical receiver can be a direct-detection optical receiver. In an example embodiment, the optical reference oscillator and optical carrier are generated using two respective independently running lasers that may or may not be co-located.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods in a communication system are provided. A method comprises receiving from network instructions of how to control multi-user multiple input multiple output connections maintained by one or more radio access nodes, the connections utilising one or more slices. One or more radio access nodes perform, based at least in part on the received network instructions, multi-user pairing of terminal devices of the same or different slices, and determine, based at least in part on the received network instructions, slice-based quota taking multi-user pairing and interference arising from paired allocations into account.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a Network Slice Instance (NSI) management object corresponding to an NSI managed by a core network is acquired at a wireless access device, the NSI management object having wireless network characteristics associated with the NSI; NSI capability information is advertised to a terminal device in a wireless network provided by the wireless access device, the NSI capability information at least indicating whether the wireless network supports a network slicing function; mapping information on the NSI and a transmission tunnel between the terminal device and the core network is received from the terminal device; and data passing through the transmission tunnel are forwarded in the corresponding NSI based on the mapping information, the NSI management object, and the wireless network characteristics associated with the NSI.

Abstract: A software defined networking (SDN) controller or routers in a network determine unicast paths from an ingress router to egress routers from the network based on quality-of-service (QoS) metrics for links between routers of the network. A subset of the unicast paths is associated with a multicast flow based on one or more QoS criteria for the multicast flow. A router pushes a label stack onto a packet of the multicast flow. The label stack includes labels that identify the subset of the unicast paths. The packet including the label stack is multicast through the network to the egress routers. Routers that receive the multicast packet selectively modify the label stack in the packet based on the labels that identify the subset of the unicast paths. The routers selectively forward the packet based on the labels.