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, providing mesh access connectivity with ultra-low end-to-end latency in next-generation MEC-based Cloud-RAN. Our proposed method can compute optimal virtual PON slice allocation in timescales compatible with real-time or near real-time operations.
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…
We propose a virtual-PON based Mobile Fronthaul (MFH) architecture that allows direct communications between edge points (enabling EAST-WEST communication). Dynamic slicing improves service multiplexing while supporting ultra-low latency under 100$μ$s between cells and MEC nodes.
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. …
Network slicing of multi-access edge computing (MEC) resources is expected to be a pivotal technology to the success of 5G networks and beyond. The key challenge that sets MEC slicing apart from traditional resource allocation problems is that edge nodes depend on tightly-intertwined and strictly-constrained networking, computation and storage resources. Therefore, instantiating MEC slices without incurring in resource over-provisioning is hardly addressable with existing slicing algorithms. The main innovation of this paper is Sl-EDGE, a unified MEC slicing framework that allows network opera…
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
Ultra-low end-to-end latency is one of the most important requirements in 5G networks and beyond to support latency-critical applications. Cloud-RAN and MEC are considered as the key driving technology that can help reduce end-to-end latency. However, the use of MEC nodes poses radical changes to the access network architecture. As it brings the processing and the networking services closer to the edge, it often requires network functions (for example, the CU/DU stack and the application processing) to be distributed across different MEC sites. Therefore, a novel transport mechanism is needed …
Radio access network (RAN) slicing is an effective methodology to dynamically allocate networking resources in 5G networks. One of the main challenges of RAN slicing is that it is provably an NP-Hard problem. For this reason, we design near-optimal low-complexity distributed RAN slicing algorithms. First, we model the slicing problem as a congestion game, and demonstrate that such game admits a unique Nash equilibrium (NE). Then, we evaluate the Price of Anarchy (PoA) of the NE, i.e., the efficiency of the NE as compared to the social optimum, and demonstrate that the PoA is upper-bounded by 3…
We propose a mechanism to support URLLC Open-RAN ultra-low latency over a MESH-PON, serving dense deployment of small cell and MEC nodes in an access network. We show the possibility, under given assumptions, to achieve application-to-application end-to-end latency below 1ms.
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…
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…
We present an architecture for the provision of video Content Delivery Network (CDN) functionality as a service over a multi-domain cloud. We introduce the concept of a CDN slice, that is, a CDN service instance which is created upon a content provider's request, is autonomously managed, and spans multiple potentially heterogeneous edge cloud infrastructures. Our design is tailored to a 5G mobile network context, building on its inherent programmability, management flexibility, and the availability of cloud resources at the mobile edge level, thus close to end users. We exploit Network Functio…
Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven zero-touch network slicing is envisaged as a promising cutting-edge technology to harness the full potential of heterogeneous 5G and beyond 5G (B5G) communication systems and enable the automation of demand-aware resource management and orchestration (MANO). In this paper, we tackle the issue of B5G radio access network (RAN) joint slice admission control and resource allocation according to proposed slice-enabling cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (mMIMO) setup by invoking a continuous deep reinforcement learning (DRL) method. We present a no…
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 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…
Cloud-Radio Access Networks (Cloud-RANs) are separating the mobile networks base station functions into three units, the connection between the two of them is referred to as the fronthaul network. This work demonstrates the transmission of user data transport blocks between the distributed Medium Access Control (MAC) layer and local Physical (PHY) layer in the radiounit over a Passive Optical Network (PON). PON networks provide benefits in terms of economy and flexibility when used for Cloud-RAN fronthaul transport. However, the PON upstream scheduling can introduce additional latency that mig…
Network slicing is emerging as a promising method to provide sought-after versatility and flexibility to cope with ever-increasing demands. To realize such potential advantages and to meet the challenging requirements of various network slices in an on-demand fashion, we need to develop an agile and distributed mechanism for resource provisioning to different network slices in a heterogeneous multi-resource multi-domain mobile network environment. We formulate inter-domain resource provisioning to network slices in such an environment as an optimization problem which maximizes social welfare a…
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…
Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) facilitates the deployment of critical applications with stringent QoS requirements, latency in particular. This paper considers the problem of jointly planning the availability of computational resources at the edge, the slicing of mobile network and edge computation resources, and the routing of heterogeneous traffic types to the various slices. These aspects are intertwined and must be addressed together to provide the desired QoS to all mobile users and traffic types still keeping costs under control. We formulate our problem as a mixed-integer nonlinear p…
Radio access network (RAN) virtualization is gaining more and more ground and expected to re-architect the next-generation cellular networks. Existing RAN virtualization studies and solutions have mostly focused on sharing communication capacity and tend to require the use of the same PHY and MAC layers across network slices. This approach has not considered the scenarios where different slices require different PHY and MAC layers, for instance, for radically different services and for whole-stack research in wireless living labs where novel PHY and MAC layers need to be deployed concurrently …
Network slicing is considered a key mechanism to serve the multitude of tenants (e.g. vertical industries) targeted by forthcoming 5G systems in a flexible and cost-efficient manner. In this paper, we present a SDN/NFV architecture with multi-tenancy support. This architecture enables a network slice provider to deploy network slice instances for multiple tenants on-the-fly, and simultaneously provision them with isolation guarantees. Following the Network Slice as-a-Service delivery model, a tenant may access a Service Catalog, selecting the slice that best fits its needs and ordering its dep…
The 3GPP has provided its first standard specifications for network slicing in the recent Release 15. The fundamental principles are specified which constitute the standard network slicing framework. These specifications, however, lack the session continuation mechanisms among slices, which is a fundamental requirement to achieve inter-slice mobility. In this paper, we propose three solutions which enable session continuation among slices in the current 3GPP network slicing framework. These solutions are based on existing, well-established standard mechanisms. The first solution is based on th…
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）
An important novelty of 5G is its role in transforming the industrial production into Industry 4.0. Specifically, Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) will, in many cases, enable replacement of cables with wireless connections and bring freedom in designing and operating interconnected machines, robots, and devices. However, not all industrial links will be of URLLC type; e.g. some applications will require high data rates. Furthermore, these industrial networks will be highly heterogeneous, featuring various communication technologies. We consider network slicing as a mechanism t…
The widespread adoption of 5G cellular technology will evolve as one of the major drivers for the growth of IoT-based applications. In this paper, we consider a Service Provider (SP) that launches a smart city service based on IoT data readings: in order to serve IoT data collected across different locations, the SP dynamically negotiates and rescales bandwidth and service functions. 5G network slicing functions are key to lease an appropriate amount of resources over heterogeneous access technologies and different site types. Also, different infrastructure providers will charge slicing servic…
University of Nebraska-Lincoln（内布拉斯加大学林肯分校）；Nokia Bell Labs（诺基亚贝尔实验室）；New Jersey Institute of Technology（新泽西理工学院）
Network slicing allows mobile network operators to virtualize infrastructures and provide customized slices for supporting various use cases with heterogeneous requirements. Online deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has shown promising potential in solving network problems and eliminating the simulation-to-reality discrepancy. Optimizing cross-domain resources with online DRL is, however, challenging, as the random exploration of DRL violates the service level agreement (SLA) of slices and resource constraints of infrastructures. In this paper, we propose OnSlicing, an online end-to-end network…
Economical and environmental concerns necessitate research on designing energy-efficient optical access network especially Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) which is one of the most widely accepted and deployed last-mile access network. In this paper, our primary focus is on designing a protocol for saving energy at Optical Network Units (ONUs) while satisfying the Service Label Agreement (SLA). The SLA of both Up-Stream (US) and Down-Stream (DS) traffic can be satisfied only if the EPON network can react to their instantaneous load change during sleep periods of ONUs and to the best of …
University of Swabi（斯瓦比大学）；Northumbria University（诺森比亚大学）；University of Hull（赫尔大学）；Institute of Management Sciences（管理科学学院）；Instituto De Telecomunicaces（电信研究所）
In the current era, the next-generation networks like 5th generation (5G) and 6th generation (6G) networks require high security, low latency with a high reliable standards and capacity. In these networks, reconfigurable wireless network slicing is considered as one of the key elements for 5G and 6G networks. A reconfigurable slicing allows the operators to run various instances of the network using a single infrastructure for a better quality of services (QoS). The QoS can be achieved by reconfiguring and optimizing these networks using Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms.…
Conflict-Aware Autonomous Resource Orchestration for 5G Edge Slicing Using Multi-Agent Systems and LLMs
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)（南里奥格兰德联邦大学）；Federal University of Viçosa (UFV)（维索卡联邦大学）；University of São Paulo (USP)（圣保罗大学）；University of Minho (UMinho)（米尼奥大学）
An Intelligent Native Network Slicing Security Architecture Empowered by Federated Learning
Federal University of Viçosa (UFV)（维索萨联邦大学）；Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES)（圣埃斯皮里图联邦大学）；Salvador University (UNIFACS)（萨尔瓦多大学）；Federal University of Ceará (UFC)（塞阿拉联邦大学）；University of São Paulo (USP)（圣保罗大学）；University of Minho (UMinho)（米尼奥大学）
