Granted Patent B2

US 12,634,374 · App. 18/708,589 · Granted May 19, 2026

Inventor: Wenliang Xu (Shanghai, CN)

Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)

H04L67/51

Abstract

Claims (55)

1 . A method performed by a User Equipment (UE), having a first functional component implementing an enabler function, the method comprises:

performing an Edge Application Server (EAS) discovery to discover information regarding one or more first network functions implementing EASs as part of an initial service provisioning;

selecting at least one first network function for implementing an initial EAS of the one or more first network functions, for providing service to a second functional component implementing application function in the UE;

determining a second network function implementing Edge Enabler Server (EES) according to the selected at least one first network function as an initial EAS;

transmitting, to the determined second network function, a message for triggering at least one of service session context handling and traffic influence, wherein the message comprises an EAS endpoint of the selected initial EAS; and

transferring application data traffic, based on the at least one of service session context handling and traffic influence, between the EAS endpoint and the application function in the UE via a third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message for triggering the service session context handling includes information regarding the second functional component and information regarding the selected initial EAS.

3 . The method according to claim 2 , wherein the information regarding the second functional component further includes at least one ID of the UE and an ID of the second functional component; and wherein the information regarding the selected initial EAS further includes an ID of the selected initial EAS.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the message for triggering traffic influence further comprises an ID of the selected initial EAS.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the traffic influence is a traffic influence between the UE and the initial EAS.

6 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein selecting the first network function further comprising:

providing the information regarding the one or more first network functions to the second functional component;

receiving a selection including one or more first network function from the second functional component; and

selecting at least one first network function according to the received selection.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein selecting the first network function further comprising:

providing information regarding a subset of the one or more first network functions to the second functional component;

receiving a selection including one or more first network function from the second functional component; and

selecting at least one first network function according to the received selection.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein selecting the first network function further comprising:

receiving a delegation on the selection of the first network function from the second functional component;

selecting at least one first network function; and

informing the second functional component about the selected at least one first network function.

9 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein the selection of the first network function is based on at least one of preferred EAS provider and best EAS service Key Performance Indicator (KPI).

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

receiving, from the determined second network function, a response to the transmitted message, wherein the response indicates success or failure of the traffic influence, service session context handling, or the success or failure of the traffic influence and the service session context handling.

11 . The method according to claim 10 , wherein transmitting the message to the determined second network function further comprising:

transmitting, to the determined second network function, an EAS declaration request message over EDGE-1 interface;

wherein receiving the response from the determined second network function further comprising:

receiving, from the determined second network function, an EAS declaration response message over EDGE-1 interface.

12 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein performing the EAS discovery further comprising:

transmitting a first message to a third network function implementing Edge Configuration Server (ECS);

receiving a second message from the third network function, including information regarding one or more second network functions;

transmitting a third message to each of the one or more second network functions; and

receiving a fourth message from each of the one or more second network functions, wherein the fourth message includes information regarding the one or more first network functions.

13 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the first message is service provisioning request message and the second message is service provisioning response message; wherein the first message is service provisioning subscription request message and the second message is service provisioning notification message; or wherein the first message is service provisioning request message and the second message is service provisioning response message, and the first message is service provisioning subscription request message and the second message is service provisioning notification message.

14 . The method according to claim 12 , wherein the third message is EAS discovery request message and the fourth message is EAS discovery response message; wherein the third message is EAS discovery subscription request message and the fourth message is EAS discovery notification message; or wherein the third message is EAS discovery request message and the fourth message is EAS discovery response message, and the third message is EAS discovery subscription request message and the fourth message is EAS discovery notification message.

15 . A method performed by a second network function implementing Edge Enabler Server (EES), comprising:

receiving, from a User Equipment (UE) having a first functional component implementing an enabler function, a message for triggering at least one of service session context handling and traffic influence;

determining whether to perform Edge Application Server (EAS) traffic influence based on the message, wherein the message comprises an endpoint of a first network function implementing an initial Edge Application Server (EAS); and

transferring application data traffic, based on the at least one of service session context handling and traffic influence, between the endpoint and an application function in the UE via a third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network.

16 . The method according to claim 15 , wherein the message for triggering service session context handling includes information regarding a second functional component implementing application function in the UE and information regarding the first network function implementing initial EAS.

17 . The method according to claim 16 , wherein the information regarding the second functional component further includes at least one ID of the UE and an ID of the second functional component; and wherein the information regarding the first network function further includes an ID of the first network function.

18 . The method according to claim 16 , further comprising:

informing, to the first network function, to perform EAS traffic influence, wherein the EAS traffic influence is a traffic influence between the UE and the initial EAS.

19 . The method according to claim 16 , further comprising:

storing the information included within the message for triggering service session context handling; or

transmitting, to the first functional component, a response to received message, wherein the response indicates success or failure of the traffic influence, service session context handling, or the success or failure of the traffic influence and the service session context handling.

20 . A User Equipment (UE), comprising:

at least one processor; and

a computer readable storage medium coupled to the at least one processor, the computer readable storage medium containing instructions, which instructions when executed by the at least one processor, cause the UE to:

perform an Edge Application Server (EAS) discovery to discover information regarding one or more first network functions implementing EASs as part of an initial service provisioning;

select at least one first network function for implementing an initial EAS of the one or more first network functions, for providing service to a second functional component implementing application function in the UE;

determine a second network function implementing Edge Enabler Server (EES) according to the selected at least one first network function as an initial EAS;

transmit, to the determined second network function, a message for triggering at least one of service session context handling and traffic influence, wherein the message comprises an EAS endpoint of the selected initial EAS; and

transfer application data traffic, based on the at least one of service session context handling and traffic influence, between the EAS endpoint and the application function in the UE via a third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (11)