IP Library Granted Patent US 10,880,952
Granted Patent B2
US 10,880,952 · App. 16/240,322 · Granted Dec 29, 2020

Apparatus and method of LWA and LWIP configuration, performance and fault management

Inventors: Joey Chou (Scottsdale, AZ); Yizhi Yao (Chandler, AZ)
Assignee: Apple Inc.
H04W88/18H04L43/0823H04L63/0485H04L63/164H04W8/08H04W24/08H04W24/10H04W76/12H04W84/12
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,880,952
App. No.
16/240,322
Granted
Dec 29, 2020
Kind
B2
Abstract

An apparatus and method for CM, PM and FM of LWA and LWIP are described. An NM sends a management request to an EM for management of an IOC instance for LWA or LWIP. The EM manages the IOC instance based on the request and returns a response to the request. The response indicates a result of the request or a result of management of the IOC instance. The EM collects, from the network functions, performance measurements and alarms related to the LWA or LWIP. The collected information is provided to the NM. The NM and EM take an action based on the collected information.

Claims (107)

1. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors arranged to cause a network manager (NM) to:

generate, for transmission to an element manager (EM), a management request for management of an Information Object Class (IOC) instance for at least one of LTE Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Aggregation (L WA) or LTE WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel (LWIP), the request requesting the EM to one of:

provision WLAN or L WIP-related information to one of a base station or a WLAN Termination (WT), or

configure a WLAN mobility set to the base station;

obtain, from the IOC instance, at least one of performance measurements or alarms related to the at least one of the L WA or L WIP; and

take an action to modify the network based on the at least one of the performance measurements or alarms.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

management of the IOC instance comprises creation of the IOC instance, modification of the IOC instance or deletion of the IOC instance, and

the IOC instance comprises:

an ENBFunction IOC representing the base station;

a WTFunction IOC representing the WT;

an EP_Xw IOC representing an Xw interface between the base station and the WT; or

a WLANMobilitySet IOC representing a WLAN mobility set managed by management system for at least one of LWA or LWIP.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the ENBFunction IOC comprises an attribute that indicates information of an L WIP Secure Gateway (SeGW), the attribute comprising at least one of an identifier or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the L WIP SeGW.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the WTFunction IOC inherits from a ManagedFunction IOC, comprises attributes that indicate information of a WLAN, the attributes comprising an identifier of the WLAN, an operational status of the WLAN, a geographical location of the WLAN and an identifier of a base station with which the WLAN has an L WA relation.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the EP Xw IOC inherits from an EP RP IOC and is contained by at least one of the ENBFunction IOC or the WTFunction IOC.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein multiple instances of the EP Xw IOC are contained by the WTFunction IOC to indicate that the WT has relations with multiple base stations.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein multiple instances of the EP Xw IOC are contained by the ENBFunction IOC to indicate that the base station cNB has relations with multiple WTs.

8. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the WLANMobilitySet IOC inherits from a ManagedFunction IOC and comprises attributes that indicate information of a WLAN, the attributes comprising an identifier of the WLAN, an operational status of the WLAN, a geographical location of the WLAN and an indication of whether L WA or L WIP is supported between the base station and the WLAN.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein:

the performance measurements are obtained based on performance management (PM) file information provided by the EM, the PM file information comprising a file name and file location, and

the performance measurements are generated by the base station or the WT.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein:

performance measurements generated by the base station are for each base station, each Xw interface, or each WLAN mobility set managed by Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OAM),

performance measurements generated by the WT are for each WT or each X w interface, or

performance measurements related to a WLAN access point (AP) are measured for each WLAN AP.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the performance measurements generated by the base station comprise:

a number of octets of incoming or outgoing LTE-WLAN Aggregation Adaptation Protocol (LWAAP) packet data units (PDUs) transmitted over an Xw interface,

a mean number of user equipments (UEs) associated with a WLAN,

a number of UEs for which the incoming or outgoing L WAAP PDU s are transmitted over the Xw interface

a number of attempted or failed WT Configuration Updates;

a number of WT status requests or failures;

a number of WT addition requests or rejections;

a number of base station initiated WT modification requests or rejected base station initiated WT modifications;

a number of WT initiated WT modification requests or refused WT initiated WT modifications;

a number of base station initiated WT releases or WT initiated WT releases;

a number of octets of downlink (DL) or uplink (UL) L WIP Encapsulation Protocol (LWIPEP) PDUs;

a mean number of UEs associated with WLAN for LWIP;

a number of UEs the DL LWIPEP PDUs are transmitted for or the UL LWIPEP PDUs are received for; a number of WLAN status reports;

a number of attempted or successful WLAN additions to a L WA WLAN mobility set;

a number of attempted or successful WLAN releases from the L WA WLAN mobility set;

a number of attempted or successful additions of L WA dedicated radio bearer (DRB);

a number of attempted or successful reconfigurations of LTE DRB to LWADRB;

a number of attempted or successful reconfigurations of LWA DRB;

a number of attempted or successful WLAN additions to the L WIP WLAN mobility set;

a number of attempted or successful WLAN releases from the L WIP WLAN mobility set;

a number of attempted or successful additions of LWIP DRB;

a number of attempted or successful reconfigurations of LTE DRB to LWIP DRB; and

a number of attempted or successful reconfigurations of LWIP DRB.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the PM measurements generated by the WT comprise:

a number of octets of incoming or outgoing LTE-WLAN Aggregation Adaptation Protocol (LWAAP) packet data units (PDUs) transmitted over Xw interface;

a mean number of user equipments (UEs) associated with a WLAN;

a number of UEs for which the incoming or outgoing L W AAP PDU s are transmitted over an Xw interface;

a number of attempted or failed WT Configuration Updates;

a number of WT status requests or failures;

a number of WT addition requests or rejections;

a number of base station initiated WT modification requests or rejected base station initiated WT modifications;

a number of WT initiated WT modification requests or refused WT initiated WT modifications; and

a number of base station or WT initiated WT releases.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the performance measurements related to a WLAN access point (AP) comprise:

IP.InUnicastPacketWlanAP;

IP. OutUnicastPacketWlanAP;

IP.InMulticastPacketWlanAP;

IP. OutMulticastPacket WlanAP;

IP.InBroadcastPacketWlanAP;

IP. OutBroadcastPacketWlanAP;

MAC. SuccRtsWlanAP;

MAC.FailRtsWlanAP;

MAC.FailAckWlanAP;

MAC. successMpduWlanAP;

MAC.failedMpduWlanAP; and

NumberOfAssociatedStation.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are further configured to correlate performance measurements related to at least one of L WA or L WIP and performance measurements related to a WLAN access point (AP).

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the action comprises creation, modification or deletion of the IOC instance to optimize the L WA or LWIP, removal of a faulty WLAN AP from a WLAN mobility set, reset a faulty base station, WT or WLAN AC or access point (AP) or replacement of faulty hardware of the base station, WT or WLAN AC or AP.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable storage device including instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a machine, configure the machine to perform operations comprising:

receiving, at an element manager (EM) from a network manager (NM), a management request for management of an Information Object Class (IOC) instance for at least one of LTE Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Aggregation (L WA) or LTE WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel (LWIP), the request requesting the EM to one of:

provision WLAN or L WIP-related information to one of a base station an evolved or a WLAN Termination (WT), or

configure a WLAN mobility set to the base station; and

managing the IOC instance based on the request.

17. The medium of claim 16 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the machine, further configure the machine to perform operations comprising:

collecting, from network functions, at least one of performance measurements or alarms related to the at least one of L WA or L WIP;

providing the at least one of performance measurements or alarms to the NM; and

taking a network action related to the at least one of the L WA or L WIP based on the at least one of the performance measurements or alarms.

18. The medium of claim 16 , wherein:

managing the IOC instance comprises creating, modifying or deleting the IOC instance, and

the IOC instance comprises at least one of:

an ENBFunction IOC representing the base station, the ENBFunction IOC comprising at least one attribute that indicates information of an LWIP Secure Gateway (SeGW), the at least one attribute comprising at least one of an identifier or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the L WIP SeGW,

a WTFunction IOC representing the WT,

an EP Xw IOC representing an Xw interface between the base station cNB and the WT, or

a WLANmobilityset IOC representing a WLAN mobility set managed by a management system for L WA and L WIP.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors arranged to cause an element manager (EM) to:

obtain, from a network manager (NM), a management request for management of an Information Object Class (IOC) instance for at least one of LTE Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Aggregation (LWA) or LTE WLAN Radio Level Integration with IPsec Tunnel (L WIP) the request requesting the EM to one of:

provision WLAN or L WIP-related information to one of a base station or a WLAN Termination (WT), or

configure a WLAN mobility set to the base station; and

manage the IOC instance based on the request.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 , wherein:

the one or more processors are further arranged to:

collect, from network functions, at least one of performance measurements or alarms related to the at least one of L WA or L WIP;

provide the at least one of performance measurements or alarms to the NM; and

take a network action related to the at least one of the L WA or L WIP based on the at least one of the performance measurements or alarms;

management of the IOC instance comprises at least one of creation, modification or deletion of the IOC instance, and the IOC comprises at least one of:

an ENBFunction IOC representing the base station, the ENBFunction IOC comprising at least one attribute that indicates information of an LWIP Secure Gateway (SeGW), the at least one attribute comprising at least one of an identifier or an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the L WIP SeGW,

a WTFunction IOC representing the WT,

an EP Xw IOC representing an Xw interface between the base station and the WT, or

a WLANmobilityset IOC representing a WLAN mobility set managed by management system for L WA and L WIP.

Assignments (3)
CONFIRMATORY ASSIGNMENT Recorded Aug 11, 2020
From: INTEL IP CORPORATION
To: INTEL CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 053455/0489 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 25, 2020
From: INTEL CORPORATION
To: APPLE INC.
Reel/Frame 053065/0418 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 5, 2019
From: CHOU, JOEY; YAO, YIZHI
To: INTEL IP CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 049374/0922 →