Granted Patent B2

US 12,507,319 · App. 17/397,045 · Granted Dec 23, 2025

Inventor: Chang Hong Shan (Shanghai, CN)

Assignee: Intel Corporation

H04W88/04H04W60/04H04W76/14H04W84/042

Abstract

Claims (36)

1 . An apparatus for a user equipment (UE) configured for operation in a Fifth Generation system (5GS), the apparatus comprising:

processing circuitry, wherein to configure the UE for proximity-based services (ProSe) in the 5GS, the processing circuitry is to:

encode a registration request message for transmission to an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) of the 5GS while the UE is unestablished as a relay, the registration request message indicating a 5G ProSe capability of the UE as a 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay;

decode an authorization policy received by the UE, the authorization policy provisioned to the UE based on the UE assuming a role of the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay, and the authorization policy including identification information of public land mobile networks (PLMNs) in which the UE is authorized to perform a network traffic relay for at least two 5G ProSe End UEs discovered by the UE when the UE is served by a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) of the 5GS;

decode configuration information provisioned to the UE with the authorization policy, the configuration information originating from a Policy Control Function (PCF) of the 5GS, and the configuration information including ProSe relay discovery parameters for the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay, the ProSe relay discovery parameters comprising at least one of user information identification (user info ID) and a relay service code associated with a 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery;

perform the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery to discover the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs using the ProSe relay discovery parameters; and

perform the network traffic relay for the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs as the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay authorized in the 5GS based on the authorization policy; and

a memory coupled to the processing circuitry and configured to store the authorization policy.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is to:

decode configuration information provisioned to the UE, the configuration information including radio parameters; and

perform the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery of the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs when the UE is not served by a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) of the 5GS.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuitry is to:

perform a 5G ProSe Direct Discovery of the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs, the 5G ProSe Direct Discovery using geographical area information included in the radio parameters.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein for each PLMN of the PLMNs, the authorization policy further identifies radio access technologies (RATs) over which the UE is authorized for acting as the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

transceiver circuitry coupled to the processing circuitry; and

one or more antennas coupled to the transceiver circuitry.

6 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) node of a Fifth Generation system (5GS), the instructions to configure the AMF node for proximity-based services (ProSe) in the 5GS and to cause the AMF node to perform operations comprising:

decoding a registration request message received from a user equipment (UE) while the UE is unestablished as a relay, the registration request message indicating a 5G ProSe capability of the UE as a 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay; and

provisioning an authorization policy to the UE, the authorization policy provisioned to the UE based on the 5G ProSe capability and the UE assuming a role of the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay and the authorization policy including identification information of public land mobile networks (PLMNs) in which the UE is authorized to perform a network traffic relay for at least two 5G ProSe End UEs discovered by the UE when the UE is served by a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) of the 5GS,

the authorization policy provisioning configuration information to the UE, the configuration information originating from a Policy Control Function (PCF) of the 5GS, and the configuration information including ProSe relay discovery parameters for the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay, the ProSe relay discovery parameters comprising at least one of user information identification (user info ID) and a relay service code associated with a 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery, and the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery based on the ProSe relay discovery parameters.

7 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 , the operations further comprising:

provisioning the authorization policy based on encoding a UE policy container received from the PCF for transmission to the UE, the UE policy container including 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay information, the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay information provisioned by the PCF in response to the registration request indicating the 5G ProSe capability.

8 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7 , the operations further comprising:

encoding a second UE policy container for transmission to the UE, the second UE policy container including an update to the 5 G ProSe UE-to-UE relay information, the update based on a change of a current PLMN associated with the UE to another PLMN associated with the UE.

9 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions for execution by one or more processors of user equipment (UE), the instructions to configure the UE for a UE-to-UE relay operation in a Fifth Generation system (5GS) and to cause the UE to perform operations comprising:

encoding a registration request message for transmission to an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) of the 5GS while the UE is unestablished as a relay, the registration request message indicating a 5G ProSe capability of the UE as a 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay;

decoding an authorization policy received by the UE, the authorization policy provisioned to the UE based on the UE assuming a role of the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay and the authorization policy including identification information of public land mobile networks (PLMNs) in which the UE is authorized to perform a network traffic relay for at least two 5G ProSe End UEs discovered by the UE when the UE is served by a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) of the 5GS;

decoding configuration information provisioned to the UE with the authorization policy, the configuration information originating from a Policy Control Function (PCF) of the 5GS, and the configuration information including ProSe relay discovery parameters for the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay, the ProSe relay discovery parameters comprising at least one of user information identification (user info ID) and a relay service code associated with a 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery;

performing the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery to discover the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs using the ProSe relay discovery parameters; and

performing the network traffic relay for the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs as the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay authorized in the 5GS based on the authorization policy.

10 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , the operations further comprising:

decoding configuration information provisioned to the UE, the configuration information including radio parameters; and

performing the 5G ProSe UE-to-UE relay discovery of the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs when the UE is not served by a Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) of the 5GS.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10 , the operations further comprising:

performing a 5G ProSe Direct Discovery of the at least two 5G ProSe End UEs, the 5G ProSe Direct Discovery using geographical area information included in the radio parameters.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (19)