Fifth Generation (5G) networks are envisioned to be fully autonomous in accordance to the ETSI-defined Zero touch network and Service Management (ZSM) concept. To this end, purpose-specific Machine Learning (ML) models can be used to manage and control physical as well as virtual network resources in a way that is fully compliant to slice Service Level Agreements (SLAs), while also boosting the revenue of the underlying physical network operator(s). This is because specially designed and trained ML models can be both proactive and very effective against slice management issues that can induce significant SLA penalties or runtime costs. However, reaching that point is very challenging. 5G networks will be highly dynamic and complex, offering a large scale of heterogeneous, sophisticated and resource-demanding 5G services as network slices. This raises a need for a well-defined, generic and step-wise roadmap to designing, building and deploying efficient ML models as collaborative components of what can be defined as Cognitive Network and Slice Management (CNSM) 5G systems. To address this need, we take a use case-driven approach to design and present a novel Integrated Methodology for CNSM in virtualized 5G networks based on a concrete eHealth use case, and elaborate on it to derive a generic approach for 5G slice management use cases. The three fundamental components that comprise our proposed methodology include (i) a 5G Cognitive Workflow model that conditions everything from the design up to the final deployment of ML models; (ii) a Four-stage approach to Cognitive Slice Management with an emphasis on anomaly detection; and (iii) a Proactive Control Scheme for the collaboration of different ML models targeting different slice life-cycle management problems.
Malicious co-residency in virtualized networks poses a real threat. The next-generation mobile networks heavily rely on virtualized infrastructure, and network slicing has emerged as a key enabler to support different virtualized services and applications in the 5G network. However, allocating network slices efficiently while providing a minimum guaranteed level of service as well as providing defense against the threat of malicious co-residency in a mobile core is challenging. To address this question, in our previous work, we proposed an optimization model to allocate slices. In this work, w…
The standardization of Radio Access Network (RAN) in mobile networks has traditionally been led by 3GPP. However, the emergence of RAN slicing has introduced new aspects that fall outside 3GPP scope. Among them, network virtualization enables the particularization of multiple RAN behaviors over a common physical infrastructure. Using Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) that comprise customized radio functionalities, each virtualized RAN, denominated RAN slice, could meet its specific requirements. Although 3GPP specifies the description model to manage RAN slices, it can neither particularize…
Virtualized network slicing allows a multitude of logical networks to be created on a common substrate infrastructure to support diverse services. A virtualized network slice is a logical combination of multiple virtual network functions, which run on virtual machines (VMs) as software applications by virtualization techniques. As the performance of network slices hinges on the normal running of VMs, detecting and analyzing anomalies in VMs are critical. Based on the three-tier management framework of virtualized network slicing, we first develop a federated learning (FL) based three-tier dist…
Concordia University（康科迪亚大学）；Université du Québec À Montréal（蒙特利尔魁北克大学）
Traditional Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) built with traditional Internet technology are less and less able to cope with today's tremendous growth of content. Information Centric Networks (ICN), a proposed future Internet technology, may aid in remedying the situation. Unlike the current Internet, it decouples information from its sources and provides in-network storage. We expect traditional CDN and ICN-based CDN to co-exist in the foreseeable future, especially as it is now known that it might be possible to evolve traditional CDNs to gain the benefits promised by ICN. 5G providers must t…
The notions of softwarization and virtualization of the radio access network (RAN) of next-generation (5G) wireless systems are ushering in a vision where applications and services are physically decoupled from devices and network infrastructure. This crucial aspect will ultimately enable the dynamic deployment of heterogeneous services by different network operators over the same physical infrastructure. RAN slicing is a form of 5G virtualization that allows network infrastructure owners to dynamically "slice" and "serve" their network resources (i.e., spectrum, power, antennas, among others)…
This study presents the design of the hybrid wireless virtualization HWV controller based network architecture. Using a HWV controller, an unified approach can be taken for provisioning and management of virtualized heterogeneous radios, irrespective of their MAC and PHY layer mechanisms. It is shown that the airtime occupancy by transmissions from different slices or groups can be used as a single metric for tying these virtualized platforms. The HWV controller can account and dynamically reprovision slice quotas, which can be used for maximizing the revenue of the network operator or aggrega…
Device-to-Device (D2D) communication is expected to enable a number of new services and applications in future mobile networks and has attracted significant research interest over the last few years. Remarkably, little attention has been placed on the issue of D2D communication for users belonging to different operators. In this paper, we focus on this aspect for D2D users that belong to different tenants (virtual network operators), assuming virtualized and programmable future 5G wireless networks. Under the assumption of a cross-tenant orchestrator, we show that significant gains can be achi…
As the network slicing is one of the critical enablers in communication networks, one anomalous physical node (PN) or physical link (PL) in substrate networks that carries multiple virtual network elements can cause significant performance degradation of multiple network slices. To recover the substrate networks from anomaly within a short time, rapid and accurate identification of whether or not the anomaly exists in PNs and PLs is vital. Online anomaly detection methods that can analyze system data in real-time are preferred. Besides, as virtual nodes and links mapped to PNs and PLs are scat…
Network Slice placement with the problem of allocation of resources from a virtualized substrate network is an optimization problem which can be formulated as a multiobjective Integer Linear Programming (ILP) problem. However, to cope with the complexity of such a continuous task and seeking for optimality and automation, the use of Machine Learning (ML) techniques appear as a promising approach. We introduce a hybrid placement solution based on Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) and a dedicated optimization heuristic based on the Power of Two Choices principle. The DRL algorithm uses the so-ca…
With the growing interest in the use of internet of things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M) communications have become an important networking paradigm. In this paper, with recent advances in wireless network virtualization (WNV), we propose a novel framework for M2M communications in vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs) with WNV. In the proposed framework, according to different applications and quality of service (QoS) requirements of vehicles, a hypervisor enables the virtualization of the physical vehicular network, which is abstracted and sliced into multiple virtual networks. Moreover, the …
Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications have attracted great attention from both academia and industry. In this paper, with recent advances in wireless network virtualization and software-defined networking (SDN), we propose a novel framework for M2M communications in software-defined cellular networks with wireless network virtualization. In the proposed framework, according to different functions and quality of service (QoS) requirements of machine-type communication devices (MTCDs), a hypervisor enables the virtualization of the physical M2M network, which is abstracted and sliced into mult…
Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) is a carrier grade platform for automatically deploying and managing Virtualized Network Functions. In this paper, we address the deployment of network slices in order to come up with a model that is compatible with ONAP. We analyze various types of network slice ontology presented in the framework of 5G standardization bodies and we propose an ONAP-compatible model on the basis of which we illustrate the design, onboarding, instantiation and distribution of a network slice. We concretely define and deploy a network slice implementing a private and custo…
LPIXEL Inc.（LPIXEL公司）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；National Institute of Informatics（国立信息学研究所）；National Center for Global Health and Medicine（国立国际医疗研究中心）；Juntendo University（顺天堂大学）；ELTE Eötvös Loránd University（厄特沃什·罗兰大学）；The University of Tokyo（东京大学）
Unsupervised learning can discover various unseen abnormalities, relying on large-scale unannotated medical images of healthy subjects. Towards this, unsupervised methods reconstruct a 2D/3D single medical image to detect outliers either in the learned feature space or from high reconstruction loss. However, without considering continuity between multiple adjacent slices, they cannot directly discriminate diseases composed of the accumulation of subtle anatomical anomalies, such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Moreover, no study has shown how unsupervised anomaly detection is associated with eith…
Machine-to-machine (M2M) communications have attracted great attention from both academia and industry. In this paper, with recent advances in wireless network virtualization and software-defined networking (SDN), we propose a novel framework for M2M communications in software-defined cellular networks with wireless network virtualization. In the proposed framework, according to different functions and quality of service (QoS) requirements of machine-type communication devices (MTCDs), a hypervisor enables the virtualization of the physical M2M network, which is abstracted and sliced into mult…
In this paper, we consider a down-link transmission of multicell virtualized wireless networks (VWNs) where users of different service providers (slices) within a specific region are served by a set of base stations (BSs) through orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). In particular, we develop a joint BS assignment, sub-carrier and power allocation algorithm to maximize the network throughput, while satisfying the minimum required rate of each slice. Under the assumption that each user at each transmission instance can connect to no more than one BS, we introduce the user-assoc…
In this paper, we propose a solution to proactively mitigate Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks in 5G core network slicing using slice isolation. Network slicing is one of the key technologies that allow 5G networks to offer dedicated resources to different industries (services). However, a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack could severely impact the performance and availability of the slices as they could share the same physical resources in a multi-tenant virtualized networking infrastructure. Slice isolation is an essential requirement for 5G network slicing. In this paper, we use netw…
The ever-increasing traffic demand is pushing network operators to find new cost-efficient solutions towards the deployment of future 5G mobile networks. The network sharing paradigm was explored in the past and partially deployed. Nowadays, advanced mobile network multi-tenancy approaches are increasingly gaining momentum paving the way towards further decreasing Capital Expenditures and Operational Expenditures (CAPEX/OPEX) costs, while enabling new business opportunities. This paper provides an overview of the 3GPP standard evolution from network sharing principles, mechanisms and architect…
Sharing Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) among different slices in Fifth Generation (5G) is a potential strategy to simplify the system implementation and utilize 5G resources efficiently. In this paper, we propose a security-aware VNF sharing model for 5G networks. The proposed optimization model satisfies the service requirements of various slices, enhances slice security by isolating their critical VNFs, and enhances resource utilization of the underlying physical infrastructure. The model tries to systematically decide on sharing a particular VNF based on two groups of constraints; the…
The fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks aim to host different types of services on the same physical infrastructure. Network slicing is considered as the key enabler for achieving this goal. Although there is some progress in applying and implementing network slicing in the context of 5G, the security and performance of network slicing still have many open research questions. In this paper, we propose the first OSM-WireGuard framework and its lifecycle. We implement the WireGuard secure network tunneling protocol in a 5G network to provide a VPN-as-a-Service (VPNaaS) functionality for virtua…
Network slicing allows different applications and network services to be deployed on virtualized resources running on a common underlying physical infrastructure. Developing a scalable system for the orchestration of end-to-end (E2E) mobile network slices requires careful planning and very reliable algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel E2E Network Slicing Orchestration System (NSOS) and a Dynamic Auto- Scaling Algorithm (DASA) for it. Our NSOS relies strongly on the foundation of a hierarchical architecture that incorporates dedicated entities per domain to manage every segment of the …
Benefiting from the widely deployed LTE infrastructures, the fifth generation (5G) wireless networks have been becoming a critical enabler for the emerging vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. However, existing LTE networks cannot efficiently support stringent but dynamic requirements of V2X services. One effective solution to overcome this challenge is network slicing, whereby different services could be supported by logically separated networks. To mitigate the increasing complexity of network slicing in 5G, we propose to leverage the recent advancement of Machine Learning (ML) techno…
A Tutorial on Cognitive Biases in Agentic AI-Driven 6G Autonomous Networks
i2CAT Foundation（i2CAT基金会）；Hostelworld Group（Hostelworld集团）；Technical University of Catalonia (UPC)（技术大学（加泰罗尼亚））；Khalifa University of Science and Technology（卡里玛大学）；ISI/ATH；University of Patras（帕特拉大学）
LLM-Based Agentic Negotiation for 6G: Addressing Uncertainty Neglect and Tail-Event Risk
i2CAT Foundation（i2CAT基金会）；Technical University of Catalonia（技术大学巴塞罗那）；University of Oulu（奥卢大学）；Research Institute for Digital Future（数字未来研究院）；Khalifa University（卡利法大学）；ISI/ATH and University of Patras（ISI/ATH和帕特拉斯大学）
