Granted Patent B2

US 12,598,487 · App. 18/045,978 · Granted Apr 7, 2026

Inventors: Zhe Fu (Guangdong, CN); Haorui Yang (Guangdong, CN)

Assignee: InterDigital Patent Holdings, Inc.

H04W24/04H04W36/0079H04W48/18

Abstract

Claims (47)

1 . A slice processing method, comprising:

obtaining, by a network side device, a handover request sent from a source base station associated with a packet-data-unit (PDU) session to be handed over to a target base station, wherein the PDU session is associated with a second slice and the target base station is associated with at least a first slice, and wherein the handover request carries slice information and a Quality of Service (QoS) attribute set for at least one QoS flow of the PDU session;

identifying, by the network side device, that the first slice is different from the second slice by determining that a first slice identifier of the first slice is different from a second slice identifier of the second slice;

selecting, by the network device and based on the slice information and the QoS attribute set, a handover behavior, wherein the selecting the handover behavior comprises selecting one of:

remapping the second slice onto a different slice that is in a same slice-group as the first slice supported by the target base station,

falling-back to a default slice supported by the target base station, and

determining that the requested handover is not supported; and

performing the selected handover behavior.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

feeding-back a handover request acknowledgment (ACK) message to the source base station; or

feeding-back a handover command message to the source base station.

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the handover request ACK message or the handover command message is further used to indicate whether the remapping the second slice or the falling-back to the default slice is supported or not supported.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting the handover behavior is based on the slice information and based on one or more handover behavior rules configured by an operation-administration-maintenance (OAM) entity and stored at the network side device.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the handover request is determined to not be supported based on a maximum number of slices supported by the target base station.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether the PDU session is marked for service continuity or priority; and

prioritizing the PDU session for the selecting the handover behavior based on the determining.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the falling-back to the default slice is selected on a condition that the second slice cannot be remapped onto a different slice that is in the same slice-group as the first slice.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising transmitting a handover response message that indicates the selected handover behavior.

9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the selecting the handover behavior is further based on whether a user equipment reaches a configured maximum slice number.

10 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting is before the target base station finalizes admission of handover.

11 . A network side device comprising:

one or more processors, and memory storing operational instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the network side device to:

obtain a handover request sent from a source base station associated with a packet-data-unit (PDU) session to be handed over to a target base station, wherein the PDU session is associated with a second slice and the target base station is associated with at least a first slice, and wherein the handover request carries slice information and a Quality of Service (QoS) attribute set for at least one QoS flow of the PDU session;

identify that the first slice is different from the second slice by determining that a first slice identifier of the first slice is different from a second slice identifier of the second slice;

select, based on the slice information and the QoS attribute set, a handover behavior, wherein the selection of the handover behavior comprises selection of one of:

remapping the second slice onto a different slice that is in a same slice-group as the first slice supported by the target base station,

falling-back to a default slice supported by the target base station, and

determining that the requested handover is not supported; and

perform the selected handover behavior.

12 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein the operational instructions, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, further causes the network side device to:

feed-back a handover request acknowledgment (ACK) message to the source base station; or

feed-back a handover command message to the source base station.

13 . The network side device according to claim 12 , wherein the handover request ACK message or the handover command message is further used to indicate whether the remapping the second slice or the falling-back to the default slice is supported or not supported.

14 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein the handover behavior is selected based on the slice information and based on one or more handover behavior rules configured by an operation-administration-maintenance (OAM) entity and stored at the network side device.

15 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein

the handover request is determined to not be supported based on a maximum number of slices supported by the target base station.

16 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein the operational instructions, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, further causes the network side device to:

determine whether the PDU session is marked for service continuity or priority; and

prioritize the PDU session for the selection of the handover behavior based on the determination.

17 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein the operational instructions, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, further causes the network side device to:

select the falling-back to the default slice on a condition that the second slice cannot be remapped onto a different slice that is in the same slice-group as the first slice.

18 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein the operational instructions, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, further causes the network side device to:

transmit a handover response message that indicates the selected handover behavior.

19 . The network side device according to claim 18 , wherein the selected handover behavior is further based on whether a user equipment reaches a configured maximum slice number.

20 . The network side device according to claim 11 , wherein

the handover behavior is selected before the target base station finalizes admission of handover.

Assignments (3)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (29)