A method for admission control including transmitting a first admission request to a distributed unit of the IAB donor, wherein the first admission request includes information about a resource set to be established for a terminal device; receiving a first admission response from the distributed unit indicating whether one or more resources in the resource set are to be accepted; transmitting a second admission request to each of at least one IAB node including information about the resource set; receiving a second admission response from each of the at least one IAB node indicating whether one or more resources in the resource set are to be accepted; and in response to determining that at least one resource in the resource set is to be accepted, transmitting to an IAB node serving the terminal device a request for establishing a context of the terminal device including information about the resource.

A method (100) for managing resource usage across domains in a communication network is disclosed. The communication network comprises a radio access domain, a core domain and a transport domain providing connectivity between the radio access domain and the core domain. The method comprises receiving from the core domain an indication of load status of gateway nodes in the core domain (110), receiving from the transport domain an indication of load status of transport resources in the transport domain (120), normalising across the core and transport domain a cost of using resources in each domain (130), calculating, on the basis of the normalised costs, optimal chains of resources in the core and transport domains for providing a service from different radio access nodes to different possible Access Point Names (APNs) (140), and sending to the core and transport domains information about the calculated optimal resource chains (150). Also disclosed are methods for managing resource usage in a core domain, a transport domain and a radio access domain of a communication network, together with cross domain, core domain, transport domain and radio access domain control elements.

A method (100) for managing resource usage across domains in a communication network is disclosed. The communication network comprises a radio access domain, a core domain and a transport domain providing connectivity between the radio access domain and the core domain. The method comprises receiving from the core domain an indication of load status of gateway nodes in the core domain (110), receiving from the transport domain an indication of load status of transport resources in the transport domain (120), normalising across the core and transport domain a cost of using resources in each domain (130), calculating, on the basis of the normalised costs, optimal chains of resources in the core and transport domains for providing a service from different radio access nodes to different possible Access Point Names (APNs) (140), and sending to the core and transport domains information about the calculated optimal resource chains (150). Also disclosed are methods for managing resource usage in a core domain, a transport domain and a radio access domain of a communication network, together with cross domain, core domain, transport domain and radio access domain control elements.

Systems and methods for facilitating communicative connection for a user device are disclosed. Based on a request for communicative connection, a communication facilitator identifies a set of candidate communications service providers (CSPs) to match the request, provides information regarding the set of candidate CSPs to the user device, receives an indication of selection, and causes establishment of communicative connection for the user device via a communications service provided by the selected CSP.

Systems and methods for facilitating communicative connection for a user device are disclosed. Based on a request for communicative connection, a communication facilitator identifies a set of candidate communications service providers (CSPs) to match the request, provides information regarding the set of candidate CSPs to the user device, receives an indication of selection, and causes establishment of communicative connection for the user device via a communications service provided by the selected CSP.

A policy control method, an apparatus, and a system, where the method includes: receiving, by a session management network element, a first message from a terminal device, where the first message includes a quality of service (QoS) rule identifier and a first operation indication; sending, by the session management network element, a second message to a policy control network element, where the second message includes a policy and charging control (PCC) rule identifier corresponding to the QoS rule identifier and a second operation indication corresponding to the first operation indication; and receiving, by the policy control network element, the second message, and performing, by the policy control network element on a PCC rule corresponding to the PCC rule identifier, a second operation indicated by the second operation indication.

A method for determining quality of service (QoS) description information includes receiving at least one piece of QoS description information of a service. Each piece of the at least one piece of QoS description information includes parameter type information and a parameter requirement. The method also includes sending to a second core network element or an application function network element corresponding to the service, parameter type information and a parameter requirement in the at least one piece of QoS description information. The method further includes receiving from the second core network element or the application function network element, feedback information of the parameter type information and the parameter requirement. The method additionally includes determining at least one piece of target QoS description information in the at least one piece of QoS description information based on the feedback information.

A system, device and method, for customer specific network slicing includes a VNO server, a first node, and a virtualized network. The VNO server executes computer instructions instantiating a solution manager engine which identifies a Solution, communicates the Solution to the first node, and upon acceptance of the Solution by the first node, instructs the virtualized network to couple the first node with a second node in accordance with the Solution. The virtualized network may include network function virtualization infrastructure and the Solution may include a slice of the virtualized network. The slice satisfies a Service Level Requirement (SLR), such as one that specifies a maximum latency for the slice. The SLR is specified in a Need received by the VNO server from the first node. The SLR is determined based upon an application program the first Node is at least one of currently executing and expected to later execute.

A system, device and method, for customer specific network slicing includes a VNO server, a first node, and a virtualized network. The VNO server executes computer instructions instantiating a solution manager engine which identifies a Solution, communicates the Solution to the first node, and upon acceptance of the Solution by the first node, instructs the virtualized network to couple the first node with a second node in accordance with the Solution. The virtualized network may include network function virtualization infrastructure and the Solution may include a slice of the virtualized network. The slice satisfies a Service Level Requirement (SLR), such as one that specifies a maximum latency for the slice. The SLR is specified in a Need received by the VNO server from the first node. The SLR is determined based upon an application program the first Node is at least one of currently executing and expected to later execute.

Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a service processing method, a PCRF, and a system. The method performed by the PCRF includes: obtaining service information of a service, where the service information includes a service identity; obtaining, according to user information and the service information, information indicating that the service requires QoS guarantee, and service chain information; when determining, according to the service chain information, that a network resource occupied by the service may be changed, sending the service identity and the information indicating that the service requires the QoS guarantee to a value-added service processor; receiving target service information, returned by the value-added service processor, of the service corresponding to the service identity; generating a first control policy according to the target service information; and sending the first control policy to a PCEF, so that the PCEF reserves a first network resource according to the first control policy.