US Patent 11444683 Wireless relay slices in a wireless communication network

In a wireless communication network, an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) receives signaling for a wireless relay and transfers a slice request to a Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF). The NSSF transfers a network slice Identifier (ID) and relay slice IDs to the AMF. The AMF transfers the network slice ID and the relay slice IDs to a Session Management Function (SMF). The SMF instantiates a network User Plane Function (UPF) responsive to the network slice ID. The SMF instantiates relay UPFs in the wireless relay responsive to the relay slice IDs. The wireless relay wirelessly exchanges data with the UEs. The relay UPFs process the user data for the relay slices. The wireless relay wirelessly exchanges the user data with the wireless access node which exchanges the data with the network UPF. The network UPF processes the user data for the network slice.