Granted Patent B2

US 12,328,621 · App. 18/525,300 · Granted Jun 10, 2025

Inventors: Mehdi Alasti (Reston, VA); Kazi Bashir (Lewisville, TX); Ash Khamas (Goffstown, NH); Ashish Bansal (Frisco, TX); Siddhartha Chenumolu (Broadlands, VA)

Assignee: DISH Wireless L.L.C.

H04W28/088H04W28/084H04W28/0908

Abstract

Claims (52)

1. A system, comprising:

a memory that stores computer instructions; and

a processor that executes the computer instructions to perform actions, the actions including:

maintaining a plurality of load thresholds for each user plane function (UPF) of a plurality of UPFs in a cellular telecommunication network, wherein:

the plurality of UPFs serve as anchor points between user equipment (UE) in the cellular telecommunication network and a data network (DN);

each UPF of the plurality of UPFs is a virtual network function responsible for interconnecting packet data unit (PDU) sessions between the user equipment (UE) and the DN by anchoring the PDU sessions on individual UPFs;

the plurality of load thresholds for each UPF depend on a respective capacity of each UPF to have PDU sessions anchored thereon; and

an amount of load put on a UPF by a UE appearing in the cellular telecommunication network is assumed to be identical for all UEs appearing in the cellular telecommunication network;

receiving a request to anchor on a UPF a PDU session of a new UE newly appearing on the cellular telecommunication network;

selecting a UPF of the plurality of UPFs on which to anchor the PDU session based on whether traffic of the PDU session is identified as low latency; and

anchoring the PDU session of the new UE to the selected UPF.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the maintaining plurality of load thresholds includes:

reducing the plurality of load thresholds by a percentage amount of capacity dedicated for low-latency network traffic.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the percentage amount of capacity dedicated for low-latency network traffic is X %, where an instance of X % is 10%.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the selecting a UPF includes:

if traffic of the PDU session is not identified as low latency, then selecting a UPF based on weights for selecting the UPF generated based on load-regions, wherein each load-region corresponds to a different range of current load of the UPF defined by one or more of lower and upper threshold percentages of load capacity of the UPF.

5. A method, comprising:

electronically maintaining a plurality of load thresholds for each user plane function (UPF) of a plurality of UPFs in a cellular telecommunication network, wherein:

the plurality of UPFs serve as anchor points between user equipment (UE) in the cellular telecommunication network and a data network (DN);

each UPF of the plurality of UPFs is a virtual network function responsible for interconnecting packet data unit (PDU) sessions between the user equipment (UE) and the DN by anchoring the PDU sessions on individual UPFs;

the plurality of load thresholds for each UPF depend on a respective capacity of each UPF to have PDU sessions anchored thereon; and

an amount of load put on a UPF by a UE appearing in the cellular telecommunication network is assumed to be identical for all UEs appearing in the cellular telecommunication network;

electronically receiving a request to anchor on a UPF a PDU session of a new UE newly appearing on the cellular telecommunication network;

electronically selecting a UPF of the plurality of UPFs on which to anchor the PDU session based on whether traffic of the PDU session is identified as low latency; and

electronically anchoring the PDU session of the new UE to the selected UPF.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the maintaining a plurality of load thresholds includes:

reducing the plurality of load thresholds by a percentage amount of capacity dedicated for low-latency network traffic.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the percentage amount of capacity dedicated for low-latency network traffic is X %, wherein where an instance of X % is 10%.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the selecting a UPF of the plurality of UPFs on which to anchor the PDU session includes:

determining whether the traffic of the PDU session is identified as low latency;

and

if traffic of the PDU session is not identified as low latency, then selecting a UPF based on load-regions for each UPF of the plurality of UPFs defined by the plurality of load thresholds.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the selecting a UPF includes:

if traffic of the PDU session is not identified as low latency, then selecting a UPF based on weights for selecting the UPF generated based on load-regions, wherein each load-region corresponds to a different range of current load of the UPF defined by one or more of lower and upper threshold percentages of load capacity of the UPF.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by at least one computer processor, cause actions to be performed including:

maintaining a plurality of load thresholds for each user plane function (UPF) of a plurality of UPFs in a cellular telecommunication network, wherein:

the plurality of UPFs serve as anchor points between user equipment (UE) in the cellular telecommunication network and a data network (DN);

each UPF of the plurality of UPFs is a virtual network function responsible for interconnecting packet data unit (PDU) sessions between the user equipment (UE) and the DN by anchoring the PDU sessions on individual UPFs;

the plurality of load thresholds for each UPF depend on a respective capacity of each UPF to have PDU sessions anchored thereon; and

an amount of load put on a UPF by a UE appearing in the cellular telecommunication network is assumed to be identical for all UEs appearing in the cellular telecommunication network;

receiving a request to anchor on a UPF a PDU session of a new UE newly appearing on the cellular telecommunication network;

selecting a UPF of the plurality of UPFs on which to anchor the PDU session based on whether traffic of the PDU session is identified as low latency; and

anchoring the PDU session of the new UE to the selected UPF.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the maintaining a plurality of load thresholds includes:

reducing the plurality of load thresholds by a percentage amount of capacity dedicated for low-latency network traffic.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 , wherein percentage amount of capacity dedicated for low-latency network traffic is X %, where an instance of X % is 10%.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the selecting a UPF of the plurality of UPFs on which to anchor the PDU session includes:

determining whether the traffic of the PDU session is identified as low latency;

and

if traffic of the PDU session is not identified as low latency, then selecting a UPF based on load-regions for each UPF of the plurality of UPFs defined by the plurality of load thresholds.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the selecting a UPF includes:

if traffic of the PDU session is not identified as low latency, then selecting a UPF based on weights for selecting the UPF generated based on load-regions, wherein each load-region corresponds to a different range of current load of the UPF defined by one or more of lower and upper threshold percentages of load capacity of the UPF.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (143)