A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for efficiently activating or deactivating user equipment. An example method includes receiving a deactivation request comprising one or more identifiers for one or more user equipment or one or more user equipment groups, determining which one or more user equipment or user equipment groups are impacted by the deactivation request and causing a suspend request to be transmitted to the one or more user equipment or user equipment groups that are impacted. Another example method is provided for receiving an activation request comprising one or more identifiers for one or more user equipment or one or more user equipment groups, determining which one or more user equipment or user equipment groups are impacted by the activation request, and causing a notice to be transmitted to the one or more user equipment or user equipment groups that are impacted.

A method and an apparatus for supporting TSN in a wireless communication network are disclosed. The method for supporting fully-distributed time-sensitive networking (TSN) by a user plane function in a mobile communication system includes receiving a first status frame through a user equipment (UE) connected to a first TSN node, the first status frame including at least one of information about the first TSN node, information about a second TSN node for transmitting a data frame, stream information for transmitting data, and accumulated latency information; transmitting an update request for service quality (QoS) setup to a TSN application function (TSN AF) through a PDU session update procedure for the UE based on the received first status frame; and updating the first status frame upon receiving QoS setup information from the TSN AF, wherein the QoS setup information may include at least one of accumulated latency designated by the TSN AF, the status of the first TSN node, and the status of the second TSN node.

An apparatus and method are provided for steering a PDU session associated with traffic routed to a selected UPF. The method includes receiving, from an AF entity, a first message including information for selecting a UPF entity for traffic routing of a terminal and information on a spatial condition associated with a location of the terminal; transmitting, to an SMF entity, a second message to receive information associated with the location of the terminal indicating that the terminal entered or left a specific area, the specific area being determined by the PCF entity based on the spatial condition; receiving, from the SMF entity, a third message including the information associated with the location of the terminal; and transmitting, to the SMF entity, a fourth message based on the information associated with the location of the terminal included in the third message, the fourth message including the information for selecting the UPF entity for traffic routing of the terminal.

Systems and methods are provided herein for handling Quality of Service (QoS) mobility and dual connectivity. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a network node in a cellular communications network includes deciding to split an existing Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session that includes a current uplink tunnel information; and setting up resources for the split PDU session. In this way, it may be possible to support QoS mobility in the different tunnel during dual connectivity. In some embodiments, the network node is a Master Next Generation—Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node, and setting up resources for the split PDU session includes sending an S-Node Addition/Modification Request including the current uplink tunnel information for the split PDU session to a Secondary NG-RAN node in the cellular communications network; and receiving a newly added additional downlink tunnel information from the Secondary NG-RAN node.

Systems and methods are provided herein for handling Quality of Service (QoS) mobility and dual connectivity. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a network node in a cellular communications network includes deciding to split an existing Protocol Data Unit (PDU) session that includes a current uplink tunnel information; and setting up resources for the split PDU session. In this way, it may be possible to support QoS mobility in the different tunnel during dual connectivity. In some embodiments, the network node is a Master Next Generation—Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node, and setting up resources for the split PDU session includes sending an S-Node Addition/Modification Request including the current uplink tunnel information for the split PDU session to a Secondary NG-RAN node in the cellular communications network; and receiving a newly added additional downlink tunnel information from the Secondary NG-RAN node.

A radio access network (RAN) configured to support real-time communications over a Long-Term Evolution (LTE) connection is described herein. When a request for a data transmission is received and a real-time communication session over the LTE connection is established, the RAN utilizes the LTE connection, not a New Radio (NR) connection, for the data transmission. When a request for a further real-time communication is received and there is an active data transmission session over the NR connection, the RAN performs at least one of ceasing to allocate traffic to the NR connection for downlink or reconfiguring the data transmission session to send data over the LTE connection.

A method for utilizing quality of service information in a network with tunneled backhaul is disclosed, comprising: establishing a backhaul bearer at a base station with a first core network, the backhaul bearer established by a backhaul user equipment (UE) at the base station, the backhaul bearer having a single priority parameter, the backhaul bearer terminating at a first packet data network gateway in the first core network; establishing an encrypted internet protocol (IP) tunnel between the base station and a coordinating gateway in communication with the first core network and a second core network; facilitating, for at least one UE attached at the base station, establishment of a plurality of UE data bearers encapsulated in the secure IP tunnel, each with their own QCI; and transmitting prioritized data of the plurality of UE data bearers via the backhaul bearer and the coordinating gateway to the second core network.

A method for utilizing quality of service information in a network with tunneled backhaul is disclosed, comprising: establishing a backhaul bearer at a base station with a first core network, the backhaul bearer established by a backhaul user equipment (UE) at the base station, the backhaul bearer having a single priority parameter, the backhaul bearer terminating at a first packet data network gateway in the first core network; establishing an encrypted internet protocol (IP) tunnel between the base station and a coordinating gateway in communication with the first core network and a second core network; facilitating, for at least one UE attached at the base station, establishment of a plurality of UE data bearers encapsulated in the secure IP tunnel, each with their own QCI; and transmitting prioritized data of the plurality of UE data bearers via the backhaul bearer and the coordinating gateway to the second core network.

A transmission tunnel changing method, an access network device, and a core network device are provided. The transmission tunnel changing method is performed by a base station, and the method includes: establishing multiple transmission tunnels for one target service; receiving data of the target service by using a source transmission tunnel, where the source transmission tunnel is one of the multiple transmission tunnels; receiving a transmission tunnel change instruction, where the transmission tunnel change instruction is used to instruct to change data transmission of the target service from the source transmission tunnel to a target transmission tunnel, and the target transmission tunnel is one of the multiple transmission tunnels; and receiving the data of the target service from the target transmission tunnel.

Disclosed is a method of managing PDU session inter-working in a User Equipment, UE, wherein if the UE changes from WB-N1 mode to NB-S1 mode, then the UE sets the state of any dedicated EPS bearer context to be inactive.