US 11,722,928 B1
Network slicing in a wireless communication network
Sreekar Marupaduga, Overland Park, KS (US); Anurag Thantharate, Kansas City, MO (US); and Sougata Saha, Olathe, KS (US)
Assigned to T-MOBILE INNOVATIONS LLC, Overland Park, KS (US)
Filed by T-Mobile Innovations LLC, Overland Park, KS (US)
Filed on Jul. 12, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/372,695.
Int. Cl. H04W 28/06 (2009.01)
CPC H04W 28/06 (2013.01) 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of operating a wireless communication network to serve a wireless User Equipment (UE) over a working network slice and a protect network slice, the method comprising:
the UE transferring UE capability data to a network control-plane that indicates the working network slice that comprises a working User Plane Function (UPF) and the protect network slice that comprises a protect UPF;
the network control-plane receiving the UE capability data, generating UE context for the working network slice and for the protect network slice that comprises a performance threshold for the working network slice, and signaling the UE context to the UE and to a network user-plane;
the UE receiving the UE context and exchanging initial user data with the network user-plane over the working network slice based on the UE context;
the network user-plane receiving the UE context and exchanging the initial user data with the UE over the working network slice based on the UE context;
the UE determining when performance of the working network slice triggers a slice switch based on the UE context by determining when the performance of the working network slice falls below the performance threshold in the UE context, and in response, stopping use of the working network slice and exchanging additional user data with the network user-plane over the protect network slice based on the UE context; and
the network user-plane exchanging the additional user data with the UE over the protect network slice based on the UE context.