Granted Patent B2

US 12,375,992 · App. 17/432,075 · Granted Jul 29, 2025

Inventors: Apostolis Salkintzis (Athens, GR); Genadi Velev (Darmstadt, DE); Dimitrios Karampatsis (Ruislip, GB)

Assignee: Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

H04W36/26H04L43/0864H04W36/0044H04W76/38

Abstract

Claims (60)

1. A user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the UE to:

establish a multi-access data connection with a mobile communication network for communicating a plurality of protocol data units (PDUs) over a first access network and a second access network;

establish a measurement session via the multi-access data connection, wherein the measurement session comprises a connection to a measurement function in the mobile communication network, the connection comprising a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection or a user datagram protocol (UDP) association;

store a table of parameters associated with the plurality of PDUs communicated over the multi-access data connection, each entry of the table of parameters corresponding to a respective PDU of the plurality of PDUs, and each entry of the table comprising a first PDU identity, an access type associated with the respective PDU, and a transmit time;

receive one or more acknowledgement messages via the measurement session, each acknowledgement message comprising a second PDU identity, wherein each acknowledgement message is associated with a receive time, and wherein the one or more acknowledgement messages correspond to a subset of the plurality of PDUs;

determine, for each acknowledgement message and based on the second PDU identity, a respective PDU identity, a corresponding access type, and a corresponding transmit time in the table of parameters;

delete one or more entries in the table of parameters associated with the corresponding access type and having respective transmit times earlier than the corresponding transmit time;

calculate a round trip time (RTT) value for the corresponding access type based at least in part on the receive time associated with the acknowledgement message and the corresponding transmit time; and

determine whether to communicate a subsequent PDU over the first access network or the second access network of the multi-access data connection, based at least in part on the calculated RTT value and a set of traffic steering rules.

2. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the acknowledgement message is received via the first access network or the second access network, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to associate the calculated RTT value with the first access network or the second access network based at least in part on the corresponding access type of the acknowledgement message.

3. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to update a first average RTT value for the first access network or a second average RTT value the second access network using the calculated RTT value, and determine whether to communicate the subsequent PDU via the first access network or the second access network based on the first average RTT value for the first access network, the second average RTT value for the second access network, and the set of traffic steering rules.

4. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the table of parameters further comprises a quality of service (QOS) flow identifier for each PDU of the plurality of PDUs communicated over the multi-access data connection, wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to associate the calculated RTT value with a QoS data flow and the first access network or the second access network based at least in part on whether the acknowledgement message is received via the first access network or via the second access network.

5. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the first PDU identity is based at least in part on header information of a respective PDU.

6. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the first PDU identity is based at least in part on a hash of at least a portion of data in a respective PDU or a checksum value based at least in part on at least a portion of the data.

7. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the measurement function comprises a performance measurement functionality (PMF).

8. The UE of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to transmit, to the PMF, a first average RTT value associated with the first access network and a second average RTT value associated with the second access network.

9. The UE of claim 7 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to transmit, to the PMF, a current average RTT value in response to an occurrence of a trigger, wherein the current average RTT value comprises a first average RTT value associated with the first access network or a second average RTT value associated with the second access network, and wherein the trigger is based at least in part on the current average RTT value deviating from a previously-communicated average RTT value by a predetermined amount.

10. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to establish the measurement session in response to the set of traffic steering rules containing a rule that depends on at least one of: a first latency of the first access network or a second latency of the second access network.

11. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

initiate a first inactivity timer for the first access network and a second inactivity timer for the second access network;

reset the first inactivity timer or the second inactivity timer, or both, in response to communicating the plurality of PDUs over the first access network or the second access network, or both; and

transmit a measurement ping message in response to an expiration of the first inactivity timer or the second inactivity timer, wherein the measurement ping message is transmitted over the first access network or the second access network based on the expiration of the first inactivity timer or the second inactivity timer.

12. The UE of claim 11 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

receive a response to the measurement ping message; and

calculate a first RTT value for the first access network or a second RTT value for the second access network, or both, based on the expiration of the first inactivity timer or the second inactivity timer and based on the response to the measurement ping message.

13. The UE of claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

receive a downlink PDU over the first access network or the second access network;

derive a third PDU identity from the received downlink PDU;

generate an acknowledgement message that contains the third PDU identity; and

transmit the acknowledgement message via the first access network or via the second access network based at least in part on whether the downlink PDU was received via the first access network or via the second access network.

14. The UE of claim 13 , wherein the downlink PDU is one of a plurality of downlink PDUs received over the first access network or the second access network, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

generate a set of first acknowledgement messages associated with the first access network according to a first frequency; and

generate a set of second acknowledgement messages associated with the second access network according to a second frequency, wherein the generated acknowledgement message comprises a first acknowledgement message associated with the first access network or a second acknowledgement message associated with the first access network.

15. The UE of claim 13 , wherein the downlink PDU is one of a plurality of downlink PDUs received over the first access network or the second access network, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:

track a first number of downlink PDUs received the first access network;

track a second number of downlink PDUs received via the second access network; and

generate the acknowledgement message based at least in part on the first number of downlink PDUs satisfying a threshold number or the second number of downlink PDUs satisfying the threshold number.

16. A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising:

establishing a multi-access data connection with a mobile communication network for communicating a plurality of protocol data units (PDUs) over a first access network and a second access network;

establishing a measurement session via the multi-access data connection, wherein the measurement session comprises a connection to a measurement function in the mobile communication network, the connection comprising a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection or a user datagram protocol (UDP) association;

storing a table of parameters associated with the plurality of PDUs communicated over the multi-access data connection, each entry of the table of parameters corresponding to a respective PDU of the plurality of PDUs, and each entry of the table comprising a first PDU identity, an access type associated with the respective PDU, and a transmit time;

receiving one or more acknowledgement messages via the measurement session, each acknowledgement message comprising a second PDU identity, wherein each acknowledgement message is associated with a receive time, and wherein the one or more acknowledgement messages correspond to a subset of the plurality of PDUs;

determining, for each acknowledgement message and based on the second PDU identity, a respective PDU identity, a corresponding access type, and a corresponding transmit time in the table of parameters;

deleting one or more entries in the table of parameters associated with the corresponding access type and having respective transmit times earlier than the corresponding transmit time;

calculating a round trip time (RTT) value for the corresponding access type based at least in part on the receive time associated with the acknowledgment message and the corresponding transmit time; and

determining whether to communicate a subsequent PDU over the first access network or the second access network of the multi-access data connection, based at least in part on the calculated RTT value and a set of traffic steering rules.

17. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the apparatus to:

establish a data connection for communicating a plurality of protocol data units (PDUs) over an access network;

establish a measurement session via the data connection, wherein the measurement session comprises a connection between a user equipment (UE) and a measurement function in a mobile communication network, the connection comprising a transmission control protocol (TCP) connection or a user datagram protocol (UDP) association;

store a table of parameters associated with the plurality of PDUs communicated over the data connection, each entry of the table of parameters corresponding to a respective PDU of the plurality of PDUs, and each entry of the table comprising a first PDU identity, an access type associated with the respective PDU, and a transmit time;

receive one or more acknowledgement messages via the measurement session, each acknowledgement message comprising a second PDU identity, wherein each acknowledgement message is associated with a receive time, and wherein the one or more acknowledgement messages correspond to a subset of the plurality of PDUs;

determine, for each acknowledgement message and based on the second PDU identity, a respective PDU identity, a corresponding access type, and a corresponding transmit time in the table of parameters;

delete one or more entries in the table of parameters associated with the corresponding access type and having respective transmit times earlier than the corresponding transmit time; and

calculate a round trip time (RTT) value for the corresponding access type based at least in part on the receive time associated with the acknowledgement message and the corresponding transmit time.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the apparatus comprises the UE, and wherein the measurement function comprises a Performance Measurement Functionality (PMF) in the mobile communication network.

19. The apparatus of claim 17 , wherein the apparatus comprises a Performance Measurement Functionality (PMF) in the mobile communication network.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (21)