US 11,956,131 B2
End-to-end intent definition of network functions for network slice management
Ronald Mark Parker, Manchester, MA (US); Michael Anthony Brown, McKinney, TX (US); Bahareh Sadeghi, Vancouver, WA (US); and Mark Gordon Libby, Groton, MA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on May 10, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/741,169.
Prior Publication US 2023/0370342 A1, Nov. 16, 2023
Int. Cl. H04L 41/5054 (2022.01); H04L 41/046 (2022.01); H04L 41/5041 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 41/5054 (2013.01) [H04L 41/046 (2013.01); H04L 41/5045 (2013.01); H04L 41/5048 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of intent based network slice management, comprising:
receiving a service profile in a form of expectations and contexts from a communication service management function (CSMF);
deriving an intent including desired network slice attributes and profile characteristics for relevant network slice subnets;
deriving requirements for a plurality of network functions (NFs) from the intent for the desired network slice subnet;
generating an intent for each NF of the plurality of NFs, the intent for each NF including limited information defining the requirements of the respective NF;
deriving a network resource model (NRM) for the respective NF based on the intent for the respective NF, wherein the NRM defines information object classes (IOCs) for expected performance of the respective NF and IOCs for a configuration of the respective NF; and
translating the NRM for the respective NF to a NF vendor-specific interface by a convergence agent for one of a plurality of NF vendors.