US 12,408,104 B2
Network slicing group
Jinsook Ryu, Oakton, VA (US); and Mehdi Alasti, Arlington, VA (US)
Assigned to DISH Wireless L.L.C., Littleton, CO (US)
Filed by DISH Wireless L.L.C., Littleton, CO (US)
Filed on Jun. 7, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/834,147.
Prior Publication US 2023/0397091 A1, Dec. 7, 2023
Int. Cl. H04W 48/16 (2009.01); H04W 48/08 (2009.01); H04W 60/00 (2009.01); H04W 76/10 (2018.01)
CPC H04W 48/16 (2013.01) [H04W 48/08 (2013.01); H04W 60/00 (2013.01); H04W 76/10 (2018.02)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for network slice grouping in a cellular communication network infrastructure, the method comprising:
receiving a user equipment device (UE) message by at least one network function (NF) nodes of the cellular communication network infrastructure, the UE message being received from a UE of a plurality of UE devices via a radio access network (RAN);
determining, by the at least one NF nodes, that the UE message invokes a wildcard-enabled slice group that is a subset of a plurality of network slices, each network slice being a respective one of a plurality of virtualized data subnetworks, each virtualized data subnetwork uniquely identifiable by a respective one of a plurality of network slice identifiers, each network slice identifier having a respective unique combination of a slice/service type (SST) value and a slice differentiator (SD) value;
generating, by the at least one NF nodes in response to the UE message, a NF message that identifies the wildcard-enabled slice group uniquely by one of the plurality of network slice identifiers that has the SD value set to designate a particular SD and has the SST value set to a predefined wildcard SST value that is one of a plurality of predefined wildcard SST values, each uniquely associated with a respective range of SST values, such that the wildcard-enabled slice group includes all network slices of the plurality of network slices that are associated with the particular SD value and are within the respective range of SST values associated with the predefined wildcard SST value; and
communicating the NF message to the UE via the RAN.