Network slicing has been considered as one of the key enablers for 5G to support diversified services and application scenarios. This paper studies the distributed network slicing utilizing both the spectrum resource offered by communication network and computational resources of a coexisting fog computing network. We propose a novel distributed framework based on a new control plane entity, regional orchestrator (RO), which can be deployed between base stations (BSs) and fog nodes to coordinate and control their bandwidth and computational resources. We propose a distributed resource allocation algorithm based on Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers with Partial Variable Splitting (DistADMM-PVS). We prove that the proposed algorithm can minimize the average latency of the entire network and at the same time guarantee satisfactory latency performance for every supported type of service. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm converges much faster than some other existing algorithms. The joint network slicing with both bandwidth and computational resources can offer around 15% overall latency reduction compared to network slicing with only a single resource.
The emergence of diverse network applications demands more flexible and responsive resource allocation for networks. Network slicing is a key enabling technology that provides each network service with a tailored set of network resources to satisfy specific service requirements. The focus of this paper is the network slicing of access networks realized by Passive Optical Networks (PONs). This paper proposes a learning-based Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation (DBA) algorithm for PON access networks, considering slice-awareness, demand-responsiveness, and allocation fairness. Our online convex optimiz…
5G radio access network (RAN) with network slicing methodology plays a key role in the development of the next-generation network system. RAN slicing focuses on splitting the substrate's resources into a set of self-contained programmable RAN slices. Leveraged by network function virtualization (NFV), a RAN slice is constituted by various virtual network functions (VNFs) and virtual links that are embedded as instances on substrate nodes. In this work, we focus on the following fundamental tasks: i) establishing the theoretical foundation for constructing a VNF mapping plan for RAN slice recov…
Network slicing emerged in 5G networks as a key component to enable the use of multiple services with different performance requirements on top of a shared physical network infrastructure. A major challenge lies on ensuring wireless coverage and enough communications resources to meet the target Quality of Service (QoS) levels demanded by these services, including throughput and delay guarantees. The challenge is exacerbated in temporary events, such as disaster management scenarios and outdoor festivities, where the existing wireless infrastructures may collapse, fail to provide sufficient wi…
Wireless network slicing (i.e., network virtualization) is one of the potential technologies for addressing the issue of rapidly growing demand in mobile data services related to 5G cellular networks. It logically decouples the current cellular networks into two entities; infrastructure providers (InPs) and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). The resources of base stations (e.g., resource blocks, transmission power, antennas) which are owned by the InP are shared to multiple MVNOs who need resources for their mobile users. Specifically, the physical resources of an InP are abstracted int…
Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）；Zhejiang University（浙江大学）；Research Institutes of Sweden（瑞典研究院）
Bandwidth slicing is introduced to support federated learning in edge computing to assure low communication delay for training traffic. Results reveal that bandwidth slicing significantly improves training efficiency while achieving good learning accuracy.
Network slicing is a key capability for next generation mobile networks. It enables one to cost effectively customize logical networks over a shared infrastructure. A critical component of network slicing is resource allocation, which needs to ensure that slices receive the resources needed to support their mobiles/services while optimizing network efficiency. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to slice-based resource allocation named Guaranteed seRvice Efficient nETwork slicing (GREET). The underlying concept is to set up a constrained resource allocation game, where (i) slices unilat…
Software switching, a.k.a virtual switching, plays a vital role in network virtualization and network function virtualization, enhances configurability, and reduces deployment and operational costs. Software switching also facilitates the development of edge and fog computing networks by allowing the use of commodity hardware for both data processing and packet switching. Despite these benefits, characterizing and ensuring deterministic performance with software switches is harder, compared to physical switching appliances. In particular, achieving deterministic performance is essential to ado…
Network slicing and resource allocation play pivotal roles in software-defined network (SDN)/network function virtualization (NFV)-assisted 5G networks. In 5G communications, the traffic rate is high, necessitating high data rates and low latency. Deep learning is a potential solution for overcoming these constraints. Secure slicing avoids resource wastage; however, DDoS attackers can exploit the sliced network. Therefore, we focused on secure slicing with resource allocation under massive network traffic. Traffic-aware scheduling is proposed for secure slicing and resource allocation over SDN…
One of the most important aspects of moving forward to the next generation networks like 5G/6G, is to enable network slicing in an efficient manner. The most challenging issues are the uncertainties in computation and communication demand. Because the slices' arrive to the network in different times and their lifespans vary, the solution should dynamically react to online slice requests. The joint problem of online admission control and resource allocation considering the energy consumption is formulated mathematically. It is based on Binary Linear Programming (BLP), where, the $Γ$-Robustness …
This paper studies the multi-agent resource allocation problem in vehicular networks using non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and network slicing. To ensure heterogeneous service requirements for different vehicles, we propose a network slicing architecture. We focus on a non-cellular network scenario where vehicles communicate by the broadcast approach via the direct device-to-device interface. In such a vehicular network, resource allocation among vehicles is very difficult, mainly due to (i) the rapid variation of wireless channels among highly mobile vehicles and (ii) the lack of a cent…
Networks can now process data as well as transporting it; it follows that they can support multiple services, each requiring different key performance indicators (KPIs). Because of the former, it is critical to efficiently allocate network and computing resources to provide the required services, and, because of the latter, such decisions must jointly consider all KPIs targeted by a service. Accounting for newly introduced KPIs (e.g., availability and reliability) requires tailored models and solution strategies, and has been conspicuously neglected by existing works, which are instead built a…
As progressive densification of cells, deployment of Cloud-RAN and \ac{MEC} are coming into reality to support the ultra-low latency with high reliability in 5G and beyond, it generates mesh traffic pattern across fronthaul network. This led to evolution of PON architectural enhancements with virtualization in order to support such mesh traffic pattern. However, allocation of virtual PON slices dynamically over such mesh-PON based fronthaul transport is becoming a research challenge. In this paper, we provide a mixed analytical-iterative model to compute optimal virtual PON slice allocation, p…
To implement network slicing in 5G, resource allocation is a key function to allocate limited network resources such as radio and computation resources to multiple slices. However, the joint resource allocation also leads to a higher complexity in the network management. In this work, we propose a knowledge transfer based resource allocation (KTRA) method to jointly allocate radio and computation resources for 5G RAN slicing. Compared with existing works, the main difference is that the proposed KTRA method has a knowledge transfer capability. It is designed to use the prior knowledge of simil…
University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学）；University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学）
As mobile networks proliferate, we are experiencing a strong diversification of services, which requires greater flexibility from the existing network. Network slicing is proposed as a promising solution for resource utilization in 5G and future networks to address this dire need. In network slicing, dynamic resource orchestration and network slice management are crucial for maximizing resource utilization. Unfortunately, this process is too complex for traditional approaches to be effective due to a lack of accurate models and dynamic hidden structures. We formulate the problem as a Constrain…
5G network slicing is essential to providing flexible, scalable and on-demand solutions for the vast array of applications in 5G networks. Two key challenges of 5G network slicing are function isolation (intra-slice) and guaranteeing end-to-end delay for a slice. In this paper, we address the question of optimal allocation of a slice in 5G core networks by tackling these two challenges. We adopt and extend the work by D. Dietrich [1] to create a model that satisfies constraints on end-to-end delay as well as isolation between components of a slice for reliability.
Network slicing to enable resource sharing among multiple tenants --network operators and/or services-- is considered a key functionality for next generation mobile networks. This paper provides an analysis of a well-known model for resource sharing, the 'share-constrained proportional allocation' mechanism, to realize network slicing. This mechanism enables tenants to reap the performance benefits of sharing, while retaining the ability to customize their own users' allocation. This results in a network slicing game in which each tenant reacts to the user allocations of the other tenants so a…
In 5G networks, slicing allows partitioning of network resources to meet stringent end-to-end service requirements across multiple network segments, from access to transport. These requirements are shaping technical evolution in each of these segments. In particular, the transport segment is currently evolving in the direction of the so-called elastic optical networks (EONs), a new generation of optical networks supporting a flexible optical-spectrum grid and novel elastic transponder capabilities. In this paper, we focus on the reliability of 5G transport-network slices in EON. Specifically, …
Recently, open radio access network (O-RAN) has become a promising technology to provide an open environment for network vendors and operators. Coordinating the x-applications (xAPPs) is critical to increase flexibility and guarantee high overall network performance in O-RAN. Meanwhile, federated reinforcement learning has been proposed as a promising technique to enhance the collaboration among distributed reinforcement learning agents and improve learning efficiency. In this paper, we propose a federated deep reinforcement learning algorithm to coordinate multiple independent xAPPs in O-RAN …
Technology Innovation Institute（技术创新研究院）；Trinity College Dublin（都柏林圣三一学院）
Network slicing is a well assessed approach enabling virtualization of the mobile core and radio access network (RAN) in the emerging 5th Generation New Radio. Slicing is of paramount importance when dealing with the emerging and diverse vertical applications entailing heterogeneous sets of requirements. 5G is also envisioning Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to be a key element in the cellular network standard, aiming at their use as aerial base stations and exploiting their flexible and quick deployment to enhance the wireless network performance. This work presents a UAV-assisted 5G network,…
Efficient network slicing is vital to deal with the highly variable and dynamic characteristics of network traffic generated by a varied range of applications. The problem is made more challenging with the advent of new technologies such as 5G and new architectures such as SDN and NFV. Network slicing addresses a challenging dynamic network resource allocation problem where a single network infrastructure is divided into (virtual) multiple slices to meet the demands of different users with varying requirements, the main challenges being --- the traffic arrival characteristics and the job resou…
Future networks will pave the way for a myriad of applications with different requirements and Wi-Fi will play an important role in local area networks. This is why network slicing is proposed by 5G networks, allowing to offer multiple logical networks tailored to the different user requirements, over a common infrastructure. However, this is not supported by current Wi-Fi networks. In this paper, we propose a standard-compliant network slicing approach for the radio access segment of Wi-Fi by defining multiple Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) per Access Point (AP). We present two algorithms, o…
Through network slicing, different requirements of different applications and services can be met. These requirements can be in terms of latency, bandwidth, mobility support, defining service area, as well as security. Through fine and dynamic tuning of network slices, services can have their delivery platforms constantly customized according to their changing needs. In this article, we present our implementation of an E2E network slice orchestration platform, evaluate its performance in terms of dynamic deployment of network slices in an E2E fashion, and discuss how its functionality can be e…
DiffServ-aware MPLS-TE (DS-TE) allows bandwidth reservation for Traffic Classes (TCs) in MPLS-based engineered networks and, as such, improves the basic MPLS-TE model. In DS-TE networks, per-Class quality of service guarantees are provided while being possible to achieve improved network utilization. DS-TE requires the use of a Bandwidth Allocation Model (BAM) that establishes the amount of bandwidth per-Class and any eventual sharing among them. This paper proposes a new bandwidth allocation model (AllocTC-Sharing) in which the higher priority traffic classes are allowed to use non allocated …
The communication network context in actual systems like 5G, cloud and IoT (Internet of Things), presents an ever-increasing number of users, applications, and services that are highly distributed with distinct and heterogeneous communications requirements. Resource allocation in this context requires dynamic, efficient, and customized solutions and Bandwidth Allocation Models (BAMs) are an alternative to support this new trend. This paper proposes the BAMSDN (Bandwidth Allocation Model through Software-Defined Networking) framework that dynamically allocates resources (bandwidth) for a MPLS (…
Network slicing enabled by fifth generation (5G) systems has the potential to satisfy diversified service requirements from different vertical industries. As a typical vertical industry, smart distribution grid poses new challenges to communication networks. This paper investigates the behavior of network slicing for smart grid applications in 5G radio access networks with heterogeneous traffic. To facilitate network slicing in such a network, we employ different 5G radio access numerologies for two traffic classes which have distinct radio resource and quality of service requirements. Three m…
Bandwidth Allocation Models (BAMs) configure and handle resource allocation (bandwidth, LSPs, fiber, slots) in networks in general (IP/MPLS/DS-TE, optical domain, other). In this paper, BAMs are considered for elastic optical networks slot allocation targeting an improvement in resource utilization. The paper focuses initially on proposing a BAM basic configuration parameter mapping suitable for elastic optical circuits. Following that, MAM, RDM and ATCS BAMs are applied for elastic optical networks resource allocation and the overall network resource utilization is evaluated. A set of simulat…
University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Huawei Technologies Canada Inc.（华为技术加拿大公司）
In this paper, we investigate a radio access network (RAN) slicing problem for Internet of vehicles (IoV) services with different quality of service (QoS) requirements, in which multiple logically-isolated slices are constructed on a common roadside network infrastructure. A dynamic RAN slicing framework is presented to dynamically allocate radio spectrum and computing resource, and distribute computation workloads for the slices. To obtain an optimal RAN slicing policy for accommodating the spatial-temporal dynamics of vehicle traffic density, we first formulate a constrained RAN slicing prob…
Network slicing envisions the 5th generation (5G) mobile network resource allocation to be based on different requirements for different services, such as Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB). Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN), proposes an open and disaggregated concept of RAN by modulizing the functionalities into independent components. Network slicing for O-RAN can significantly improve performance. Therefore, an advanced resource allocation solution for network slicing in O-RAN is proposed in this study by applying Reinforcement Learning (RL…
This paper addresses the slicing of Radio Access Network (RAN) resources by multiple tenants, e.g., virtual wireless operators and service providers. We consider a criterion for dynamic resource allocation amongst tenants, based on a weighted proportionally fair objective, which achieves desirable fairness/protection across the network slices of the different tenants and their associated users. Several key properties are established, including: the Pareto optimality of user association to base stations, the fair allocation of base stations resources, and the gains resulting from dynamic resour…
Open radio access network (ORAN) alliance which has been formed recently establishes a flexible, open, and smart radio access network (RAN) by combing the ideas from xRAN and cloud RAN (C-RAN). ORAN divides the functions of the RAN into three parts, namely remote unit (RU), distributed unit (DU), and central unit (CU). While RU contains lower PHY functions, DU contains higher PHY, MAC, and RLC and CU contains RRC, PDCP, and SDAP. CU and DU are implemented as virtual network functions (VNFs) running on a cloud environment. Interface between RU, CU, and DU are open standard interfaces. Network s…
Network slicing is a critical technique for 5G communications that covers radio access network (RAN), edge, transport and core slicing.The evolving network architecture requires the orchestration of multiple network resources such as radio and cache resources. In recent years, machine learning (ML) techniques have been widely applied for network management. However, most existing works do not take advantage of the knowledge transfer capability in ML. In this paper, we propose a deep transfer reinforcement learning (DTRL) scheme for joint radio and cache resource allocation to serve 5G RAN slic…
Virginia Tech（弗吉尼亚理工大学）；Intelligent Automation, Inc.（智能自动化公司）
The paper presents a reinforcement learning solution to dynamic resource allocation for 5G radio access network slicing. Available communication resources (frequency-time blocks and transmit powers) and computational resources (processor usage) are allocated to stochastic arrivals of network slice requests. Each request arrives with priority (weight), throughput, computational resource, and latency (deadline) requirements, and if feasible, it is served with available communication and computational resources allocated over its requested duration. As each decision of resource allocation makes s…
The circle travelling delay between OLT (Optical Line Terminal) and ONU (Optical Network Unit) is one of most important items in dynamic bandwidth allocation (DBA) algorithms in PON, called RTT (Round Trip Time). The RTT is taken into account when OLT assigns the start times for upstream bandwidth grants. In most case, RTT is estimated before making bandwidth allocation decisions in dynamic bandwidth allocation algorithms. If the estimated RTT is incorrect, the bandwidth allocation decisions are not matched with bandwidth requests of channels. Thus, performance of PON can get worse by deviatio…
Recent standardization efforts in IEEE 802.15.4-2015 Time Scheduled Channel Hopping (TSCH) and the IETF 6TiSCH Working Group (WG), aim to provide deterministic communications and efficient allocation of resources across constrained Internet of Things (IoT) networks, particularly in Industrial IoT (IIoT) scenarios. Within 6TiSCH, Software Defined Networking (SDN) has been identified as means of providing centralized control in a number of key situations. However, implementing a centralized SDN architecture in a Low Power and Lossy Network (LLN) faces considerable challenges: not only is control…
End-to-End (E2E) network slicing enables wireless networks to provide diverse services on a common infrastructure. Each E2E slice, including resources of radio access network (RAN) and core network, is rented to mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) to provide a specific service to end-users. RAN slicing, which is realized through wireless network virtualization, involves sharing the frequency spectrum and base station antennas in RAN. Similarly, in core slicing, which is achieved by network function virtualization, data center resources such as commodity servers and physical links are shar…
We provide a real-time demonstration of a low-latency PON DBA mechanism, optimised for virtual PONs. Our implementation mixes P4 programmable data plane and software-based virtual DBA to provide efficient fast-track allocation for low latency applications
In order to meet the performance/privacy requirements of future data-intensive mobile applications, e.g., self-driving cars, mobile data analytics, and AR/VR, service providers are expected to draw on shared storage/computation/connectivity resources at the network "edge". To be cost-effective, a key functional requirement for such infrastructure is enabling the sharing of heterogeneous resources amongst tenants/service providers supporting spatially varying and dynamic user demands. This paper proposes a resource allocation criterion, namely, Share Constrained Slicing (SCS), for slices alloca…
To meet the diverse demands for wireless communication, fifth-generation (5G) networks and beyond (B5G) embrace the concept of network slicing by forging virtual instances (slices) of its physical infrastructure. While network slicing constitutes dynamic allocation of core network and radio access network (RAN) resources, this article emphasizes RAN slicing (RAN-S) design. Forming on-demand RAN-S that can be flexibly (re)-configured while ensuring slice isolation is challenging. A variety of machine learning (ML) techniques have been recently introduced for traffic forecasting and classificati…
The complexity of emerging sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks has sparked an upsurge in adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to underpin the challenges in network management and resource allocation under strict service level agreements (SLAs). It inaugurates the era of massive network slicing as a distributive technology where tenancy would be extended to the final consumer through pervading the digitalization of vertical immersive use-cases. Despite the promising performance of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) in network slicing, lack of transparency, interpretability, and opaque model…
Network slicing offers an opportunity to realize ICN as a slice in 5G deployment. We demonstrate this through a generic service orchestration framework operating on commodity compute, storage and bandwidth resource pool to realize multiple ICN service slices. Specifically, we show the dynamic creation of real-time audio/video conferencing slices, over which multi-participant communication is enabled. These slices leverage ICN features of name-based routing, integrated security, inherent support for multicasting and mobility, and in-network caching-and-computing to scale and deliver services ef…
The interconnection of vehicles in the future fifth generation (5G) wireless ecosystem forms the so-called Internet of vehicles (IoV). IoV offers new kinds of applications requiring delay-sensitive, compute-intensive and bandwidth-hungry services. Mobile edge computing (MEC) and network slicing (NS) are two of the key enabler technologies in 5G networks that can be used to optimize the allocation of the network resources and guarantee the diverse requirements of IoV applications. As traditional model-based optimization techniques generally end up with NP-hard and strongly non-convex and non-li…
Network slicing has been considered as one of the key enablers for 5G to support diversified IoT services and application scenarios. This paper studies the distributed network slicing for a massive scale IoT network supported by 5G with fog computing. Multiple services with various requirements need to be supported by both spectrum resource offered by 5G network and computational resourc of the fog computing network. We propose a novel distributed framework based on a new control plane entity, federated-orchestrator , which can coordinate the spectrum and computational resources without requir…
Shaping subscriber traffic based on token bucket filter (TBF) by Internet service providers (ISPs) results in waste of network resources in shared access when there are few active subscribers, because it cannot allocate excess bandwidth in the long term. New traffic control schemes have been recently proposed to allocate excess bandwidth among active subscribers proportional to their token generation rates. In this paper we report the current status of our research on designing flexible yet practical service plans exploiting excess bandwidth allocation enabled by the new traffic control scheme…
Due to the fact that Quality of Service (QoS) requirements are not as stringent for non-real-time traffic types, as opposed to real-time traffic, more calls can be accommodated by releasing some bandwidth from the existing non-real-time traffic calls. If the released bandwidth to accept a handover call is larger than to accept a new call, then the probability of dropping a call is smaller than the probability of blocking a call. In this paper we propose an efficient Call Admission Control (CAC) that relies on adaptive multi-level bandwidth-allocation scheme for non-real-time calls. The feature…
The commercialization of Cloud-RAN, and Open-RAN in particular, is a key factor to enable 5G cell densification, by providing lower cost and more agile deployment of small cells. In addition, the adoption of MEC is important to support ultra-low latency and high reliability required by mission-critical applications, which constitute a milestone of the 5G and beyond vision of a fully connected society. However, connecting antenna site, C-RAN processing and MEC at low cost is challenging, as it requires high-capacity, low latency connectivity delivered through a highly inter-connected topology. …
Intelligent Hybrid Resource Allocation in MEC-assisted RAN Slicing Network
School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University（东南大学信息科学与工程学院）；Purple Mountain Laboratories（紫金山实验室）；Singapore University of Technology and Design（新加坡科技设计大学）
Network slicing is the key to enable virtualized resource sharing among vertical industries in the era of 5G communication. Efficient resource allocation is of vital importance to realize network slicing in real-world business scenarios. To deal with the high algorithm complexity, privacy leakage, and unrealistic offline setting of current network slicing algorithms, in this paper we propose a fully decentralized and low-complexity online algorithm, DPoS, for multi-resource slicing. We first formulate the problem as a global social welfare maximization problem. Next, we design the online algor…
The fifth-generation (5G) wireless networks are expected to provide various services compared to the 4G and previous generations of networks. The Quality of Service requirements can be quite different in terms of latency, bandwidth, reliability, and availability. 5G technology allows the fragmentation of the network into small pieces, known as network slices. This network slicing is done by specific tools and the configuration must be protected from attacks that may be performed by malicious users. Thus in this paper, a solution to protect and prevent these failures from happening is addressed…
