Adaptive data radio bearer mapping for multicast/broadcast in wireless networks
This disclosure relates to mechanisms for allocating and mapping wireless communication resources for a multicast/broadcast session in a wireless network. In some exemplary implementations, data flows in a multicast/broadcast session may be duplicated and adaptively and dynamically mapped to multiple independent radio bearers, where each of these multiple independent radio beaters may be configured to either multicast the multicast/broadcast data to a group of target user equipments or unicast the multicast/broadcast data to a single user equipment.
1. A method for radio bearer mapping in a wireless network, comprising:
determining, by a data transmission network node, a data transmission flow having a predefined Quality of Service (QOS) profile containing multicast/broadcast service data to a plurality of user equipments;
mapping, by the data transmission network node, the data transmission flow to a first radio bearer for transmitting the multicast/broadcast service data to a first set of user equipments among the plurality of user equipments;
mapping, by the data transmission network node, the data transmission flow to a second radio bearer independent of the first radio bearer for transmitting the multicast/broadcast service data to a second set of user equipments among the plurality of user equipments; and
configuring the data transmission network node to transmit the multicast/broadcast service data independently via the at least the first radio bearers and the second radio bearer each carrying the data transmission flow.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
one set of the first set of user equipments and the second set of user equipments include a single user equipment; and
the method comprises configuring the data transmission network node to unicast the multicast/broadcast service data to the single user equipment using one of the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the single user equipment is associated with an exclusive packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity of unicast type in the data transmission network node and configured to support the predefined QoS profile of the multicast/broadcast service data.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein:
the single user equipment and the exclusive PDCP entity are associated with an exclusive radio link control (RLC) entity in the data transmission network node; and
the exclusive PDCP entity and the exclusive RLC entity provide configuration for at least one of data transferring, header compression, ciphering, integrity protection, and error correction.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
one set of the first set of user equipments and second set of user equipments include multiple user equipments; and
the method comprises configuring the data transmission network node to multicast/broadcast the multicast/broadcast service data to the multiple user equipments using one of the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the multiple user equipments are collectively associated with a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entity of multicast/broadcast type and configured to support the predefined QoS profiles of the multicast/broadcast service data.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein:
the multiple user equipments and the PDCP entity are associated with a radio link control (RLC) entity configured collectively for the multiple user equipments; and
the PDCP entity and the RLC entity provide configuration for at least one of data transferring, header compression, ciphering, integrity protection, and error correction.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the data transmission flow having the predefined QoS profile is associated with a first service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) entity;
the first SDAP entity is responsible for mapping the data transmission flow to the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer;
the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer are correspondingly and exclusively associated with a first and second packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) entities; and
the data transmission flow is duplicated with a first duplicate flow mapped to the first radio bearer and a second duplicate flow mapped to the second radio bearer.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer associated with the first and second PDCP entities form a radio resource allocation set; and
the method further comprises notifying the first set of user equipments and the second set of user equipments of an entirety of the radio resource allocation set.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein:
the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer associated with the first and second PDCP entities form a radio resource allocation set;
the method further comprises notifying the first set of user equipments and the second set of user equipments of a portion or an entirety of the radio resource allocation set allocated to a specific set of user equipments; and
the method further comprises notifying the first set of user equipments and the second set of user equipments of radio bearer addition, release and modification associated with the radio resource allocation set allocated to a specific set of user equipments.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
one set of the first set of user equipments and the second set of user equipments include a single user equipment;
the method comprises configuring the data transmission network node to unicast the multicast/broadcast service data to the single user equipment using one of the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer; and
the one of the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer configured for unicasting the multicast/broadcast service data to the single user equipment is further configured for transmitting another separate unicast data flow from a separate communication session specifically associated with the single user equipment.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein:
the data transmission flow having the predefined QoS profile is associated with a first service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) entity;
the another separate unicast data flow is associated with a second SDAP entity; and
a service data unit (SDU) or a protocol data unit (PDU) of the first SDAP entity containing the data transmission flow is forwarded to the second SDAP entity for indirectly allocating, via the second SDAP entity, the one of the first radio bearer and the second radio bearer.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first set of user equipments and the second set of user equipments are determined according to their locations having a first wireless channel quality and a second wireless channel quality;
the first wireless channel quality is higher than the second wireless channel quality;
the second set of user equipments comprises a single user equipment;
the first radio bearer is allocated for multicasting the multicast/broadcast service data to the first set of user equipments; and
the second radio bearer is allocated for unicasting the multicast/broadcast service data to the single user equipment.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the second set of user equipments are located indoors and the first set of user equipments are located outdoors.
15. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first set of user equipments and second set of user equipments are respectively determined according to their association with a first set of device capabilities and a second set of device capabilities different from the first set of device capabilities; and
first set of device capabilities and second set of device capabilities comprises at least one of numbers of receiving antennas or energy consumption requirements.
16. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
first set of user equipments and second set of user equipments are respectively determined according to their association with a first subscription priority and a second subscription priority different from the first subscription priority;
the second subscription priority is lower than the first subscription priority;
the first set of user equipments comprises a single user equipment;
the first radio bearer is allocated and configured for unicasting the multicast/broadcast service data to the single user equipment; and
the second radio bearer is allocated and configured for multicast the multicast/broadcast service data to the second set of user equipments.
17. A method for mapping radio bearers in a wireless network, comprising:
determining a data transmission flow having predefined Quality of Service (QOS) profile containing multicast/broadcast service data to a plurality of user equipments serviced by a data transmission network node;
determining currently allocable air interface communication resources;
when the currently allocable air interface communication resources is below a threshold value, allocating a single radio bearer for multicast/broadcast of the multicast/broadcast service data to the plurality of user equipments; and
when the currently allocable air interface communication resource relative to a number of user equipments serviced by the data transmission network node is above a threshold value:
allocating at least two independent radio bearers correspondingly to at least two sets of user equipments for respectively unicasting or multicasting/broadcasting the multicast/broadcast service data to the at least two sets of user equipments;
configuring the data transmission network node to transmit the multicast/broadcast service data independently via the at least two independent radio bearers each containing the data transmission flow.
18. A method performed by a user equipment, comprising:
receiving a first resource allocation from a data transmission network node containing an operation of addition/release/modification of a unicast radio bearer wherein the unicast radio bearer is allocated to the user equipment and is not shared by other user equipments;
receiving a second resource allocation from the data transmission network node containing an operation of addition/release/modification of a multicast/broadcast radio bearer;
configuring the unicast radio bearer and the multicast/broadcast radio bearer in the user equipment according to the first resource allocation and the second resource allocation; and
requesting one or more lower layers to receive multicast/broadcast service data of a multicast/broadcast session from the data transmission network node targeting a plurality of user equipments via the unicast radio bearer or the multicast/broadcast radio bearer or both.
19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising configuring a first SDAP entity associated with a specific communication session associated with the user equipment and a second SDAP entity with the multicast/broadcast session, wherein the multicast/broadcast service data received by a PDCP entity associated with the first SDAP entity is forwarded by the first SDAP entity to the second SDAP entity according to an identifier in the received multicast/broadcast service data.
20. One or more network devices or a user equipment comprising one or more processors and one or more memories, wherein the one or more processors are configured to read computer code from the one or more memories to:
determine a data transmission flow having a predefined Quality of Service (QOS) profile containing multicast/broadcast service data to a plurality of user equipments;
map the data transmission flow to a first radio bearer for transmitting the multicast/broadcast service data to a first set of user equipments among the plurality of user equipments;
map the data transmission flow to a second radio bearer independent of the first radio bearer for transmitting the multicast/broadcast service data to a second set of user equipments among the plurality of user equipments; and
configure the one or more network devices or a user equipment to transmit the multicast/broadcast service data independently via the at least the first radio bearers and the second radio bearer each carrying the data transmission flow.