This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/US2017/059696 which has an International filing date of Nov. 2, 2017, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

Field

One or more example embodiments relate to methods, apparatuses and/or computer-readable storage mediums for linking a distributed unit and central unit in a wireless communications network.

Discussion of Related Art

Developments in 3rdGeneration Partnership Project (3GPP) 5thgeneration (5G) radio access networks (RANs) have trended towards virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) architectures in which part of the processing and network intelligence (including scheduling) takes place in central units (CUs), also referred to as a gNB, located in a cloud data center (sometimes called an edge cloud) and then the data is carried over a transport network to a set of remote units (RUs) (hereinafter referred to as distributed units (DUs)).

The CU may perform RAN control and user plane functions that are less time sensitive. The DU may perform control and user plane functions that are more time sensitive. Functions performed by the DU may have time constraints of 100s of microseconds or a few milliseconds. Examples of functions performed by the DU include the processing of successful or unsuccessful transmission acknowledgements such that retries may be made or new messages sent in specific timing windows, or slots, dictated by applicable standards. Uplink and downlink transmission feedback is processed according to strict rules regarding the timing at which the feedback may be provided to a receiver.

In some vRAN architectures, some of the higher-layer, relatively less time sensitive processing may take place in the edge cloud CUs while the lower physical layer, relatively more time sensitive processing takes place at the non-cloud based DUs. In some vRAN architectures, some of the higher-layer, less time sensitive processing may take place in the edge cloud CUs while the lower physical layer, more time sensitive processing takes place in “far-edge” cloud DUs.

In order to facilitate a RAN, each distributed unit establishes a communication interface with at least one central unit (this communication interface is hereinafter referred to as an “F1 interface”). The F1 interface may be used to communicate non-access stratum (NAS) control plane data that transits via a CU to a core network and Radio Resource Control (RRC) control plane data between user equipment, a DU and the CU.

SUMMARY

Conventionally, in order to establish an F1 interface, a technician manually programs the address of a specific central unit into a distributed unit when the distributed unit is installed. This manual configuration is costly and inefficient, especially considering that wireless providers may manage hundreds of thousands of distributed units.

There may be a plurality of edge-cloud data centers, each including a plurality of central units. The distributed units within a wireless network coverage area may also be densely packed and may provide different wireless services. The determination of which central unit(s) to connect to a particular distributed unit is complex. Also, the determination of a desired central unit(s) may include considerations such as differing transport network characteristics (e.g., latency between the distributed unit and the various central units) and the relationships between distributed units (e.g., coverage overlaps, handovers, multi-connectivity, etc.).

Some example embodiments provide a central server, including a memory storing computer-readable instructions; and at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to receive a physical location of a distributed unit. The processor is further configured to generate a list of one or more measurement servers based on the physical location. Furthermore, the processor is configured to send the list of one or more measurement servers to the distributed unit.

Some example embodiments provide a distributed unit, including a memory storing computer-readable instructions; and at least one processor coupled to the memory, the at least one processor configured to execute the computer-readable instructions to send a physical location of the distributed unit to a central server. The processor is further configured to receive a list of one or more measurement servers from the central server based on the physical location. The processor is further configured to communicate with the one or more measurement servers. The processor is further configured to obtain one or more performance parameters based on the communication. The processor is further configured to send the one or more performance parameters to the central server. The processor is further configured to receive one or more addresses corresponding to one or more central units from the central server based on the one or more performance parameters. Furthermore, the processor is configured to establish an F1 connection with the one or more central units using the one or more addresses.

Some example embodiments provide a method performed by a central service, the method including receiving a physical location of a distributed unit. The method further includes generating a list of one or more measurement servers based on the physical location. Furthermore, the method includes sending the list of one or more measurement servers to the distributed unit.

