Resource Allocation for Cognitive Network Slicing in PD-SCMA System Based on Two-Way Deep Reinforcement Learning

In this paper,we propose the Two-way Deep Reinforcement Learning(DRL)-Based resource allocation algorithm,which solves the problem of resource allocation in the cognitive downlink network based on the underlay mode.Secondary users(SUs)in the cognitive network are multiplexed by a new Power Domain Sparse Code Multiple Access(PD-SCMA)scheme,and the physical resources of the cognitive base station are virtualized into two types of slices:enhanced mobile broadband(eMBB)slice and ultrareliable low latency communication(URLLC)slice.We design the Double Deep Q Network(DDQN)network output the optimal codebook assignment scheme and simultaneously use the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient(DDPG)network output the optimal power allocation scheme.The objective is to jointly optimize the spectral efficiency of the system and the Quality of Service(QoS)of SUs.Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the CNDDQN algorithm and modified JEERA algorithm in terms of spectral efficiency and QoS satisfaction.Additionally,compared with the Power Domain Non-orthogonal Multiple Access(PD-NOMA)slices and the Sparse Code Multiple Access(SCMA)slices,the PD-SCMA slices can dramatically enhance spectral efficiency and increase the number of accessible users.

An Intelligent Admission Control Scheme for Dynamic Slice Handover Policy in 5G Network Slicing

5G use cases,for example enhanced mobile broadband(eMBB),massive machine-type communications(mMTC),and an ultra-reliable low latency communication(URLLC),need a network architecture capable of sustaining stringent latency and bandwidth requirements;thus,it should be extremely flexible and dynamic.Slicing enables service providers to develop various network slice architectures.As users travel from one coverage region to another area,the callmust be routed to a slice thatmeets the same or different expectations.This research aims to develop and evaluate an algorithm to make handover decisions appearing in 5G sliced networks.Rules of thumb which indicates the accuracy regarding the training data classification schemes within machine learning should be considered for validation and selection of the appropriate machine learning strategies.Therefore,this study discusses the network model’s design and implementation of self-optimization Fuzzy Qlearning of the decision-making algorithm for slice handover.The algorithm’s performance is assessed by means of connection-level metrics considering the Quality of Service(QoS),specifically the probability of the new call to be blocked and the probability of a handoff call being dropped.Hence,within the network model,the call admission control(AC)method is modeled by leveraging supervised learning algorithm as prior knowledge of additional capacity.Moreover,to mitigate high complexity,the integration of fuzzy logic as well as Fuzzy Q-Learning is used to discretize state and the corresponding action spaces.The results generated from our proposal surpass the traditional methods without the use of supervised learning and fuzzy-Q learning.

Efficient Network Slicing with Dynamic Resource Allocation

With the rapid development of wireless network technologies and the growing de⁃mand for a high quality of service(QoS),the effective management of network resources has attracted a lot of attention.For example,in a practical scenario,when a network shock oc⁃curs,a batch of affected flows needs to be rerouted to respond to the network shock to bring the entire network deployment back to the optimal state,and in the process of rerouting a batch of flows,the entire response time needs to be as short as possible.Specifically,we re⁃duce the time consumed for routing by slicing,but the routing success rate after slicing is re⁃duced compared with the unsliced case.In this context,we propose a two-stage dynamic net⁃work resource allocation framework that first makes decisions on the slices to which flows are assigned,and coordinates resources among slices to ensure a comparable routing suc⁃cess rate as in the unsliced case,while taking advantage of the time efficiency gains from slicing.

Satellite E2E Network Slicing Based on 5G Technology

We investigate the design of satellite network slicing for the first time to provide customized services for the diversified applications,and propose a novel scheme for satellite end-to-end(E2E) network slicing based on 5G technology,which provides a view of common satellite network slicing and supports flexible network deployment between the satellite and the ground.Specifically,considering the limited satellite network resource and the characteristics of the satellite channel,we propose a novel satellite E2E network slicing architecture.Therein,the deployment of the network functions between the satellite and the ground is coordinately considered.Subsequently,the classification and the isolation technologies of satellite network sub-slices are proposed adaptively based on 5G technology to support resource allocation on demand.Then,we develop the management technologies for the satellite E2E network slicing including slicing key performance indicator(KPI) design,slicing deployment,and slicing management.Finally,the analysis of the challenges and future work shows the potential research in the future.

Enabling IoT Network Slicing with Network Function Virtualization

Numerous Internet of Things (IoT) devices are being connected to the net-works to offer services. To cope with a large diversity and number of IoT ser-vices, operators must meet those needs with a more flexible and efficient net-work architecture. Network slicing in 5G promises a feasible solution for this issue with network virtualization and programmability enabled by NFV (Net-work Functions Virtualization). In this research, we use virtualized IoT plat-forms as the Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and customize network slices enabled by NFV with different QoS to support various kinds of IoT services for their best performance. We construct three different slicing systems including: 1) a single slice system, 2) a multiple customized slices system and 3) a single but scalable network slice system to support IoT services. Our objective is to compare and evaluate these three systems in terms of their throughput, aver-age response time and CPU utilization in order to identify the best system de-sign. Validated with our experiments, the performance of the multiple slicing system is better than those of the single slice systems whether it is equipped with scalability or not.

Tackling IoT Scalability with 5G NFV-Enabled Network Slicing

With emerging large volume and diverse heterogeneity of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, the one-size-fits-all design of the current 4G networks is no longer adequate to serve various types of IoT applications. Consequently, the concepts of network slicing enabled by Network Function Virtualization (NFV) have been proposed in the upcoming 5G networks. 5G network slicing allows IoT applications of different QoS requirements to be served by different virtual networks. Moreover, these network slices are equipped with scalability that allows them to grow or shrink their instances of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) when needed. However, all current research only focuses on scalability on a single network slice, which is the scalability at the VNF level only. Such a design will eventually reach the capacity limit of a single slice under stressful incoming traffic, and cause the breakdown of an IoT system. Therefore, we propose a new IoT scalability architecture in this research to provide scalability at the NS level and design a testbed to implement the proposed architecture in order to verify its effectiveness. For evaluation, three systems are compared for their throughput, response time, and CPU utilization under three different types of IoT traffic, including the single slice scaling system, the multiple slices scaling system and the hybrid scaling system where both single slicing and multiple slicing can be simultaneously applied. Due to the balanced tradeoff between slice scalability and resource availability, the hybrid scaling system turns out to perform the best in terms of throughput and response time with medium CPU utilization.

Mobility driven network slicing: an enabler of on demand mobility management for 5G

As different requirements on mobility support will be introduced by diversified communication scenarios in the fifth generation （5G）, on demand mobility management is put forward to simplify signaling process, reduce terminal power consumption, improve network efficiency and so on. In order to enable on demand mobility management in 5G networks, a mobility driven network slicing （MDNS） was proposed, which takes individual mobility support requirements into account while customizing networks for different mobile services. Within the MDNS framework, the actual levels of required mobility support are determined by a mobility description system, and network slice templates with the corresponding mobility management schemes are defined by a network slice description function. By instantiating the network slices, each mobile terminal could be directed to the network slice with the most appropriate mobility management scheme. Based on this, a prototype was implemented to validate the feasibility of MDNS framework, i.e. creating multiple network slices with different mobility management schemes. In addition, the performance evaluation on average cost of processing a mobility event is conducted for the proposed MDNS framework and the long term evolution （LTE） system, and operating benefits are analyzed including efficiency and scalability.

User Scheduling and Slicing Resource Allocation in Industrial Internet of Things

Heterogeneous base station deployment enables to provide high capacity and wide area coverage.Network slicing makes it possible to allocate wireless resource for heterogeneous services on demand.These two promising technologies contribute to the unprecedented service in 5G.We establish a multiservice heterogeneous network model,which aims to raise the transmission rate under the delay constraints for active control terminals,and optimize the energy efficiency for passive network terminals.A policygradient-based deep reinforcement learning algorithm is proposed to make decisions on user association and power control in the continuous action space.Simulation results indicate the good convergence of the algorithm,and higher reward is obtained compared with other baselines.

Blockchain for Network Slicing in 5G and Beyond:Survey and Challenges

Network slicing has gained popularity as a result of the advances in the fifth generation(5G)mobile network.Network slicing facilitates the support of different service types with varying requirements,which brings into light the slicing-aware next generation mobile network architecture.While allowing resource sharing among multiple stakeholders,there is a long list of administrative negotiations among parties that have not established mutual trust.Distributed ledger technology may be a solution to mitigate the above issues by taking its decentralized yet immutable and auditable ledger,which may help to ease administrative negotiations and build mutual trust among multi-stakeholders.There have been many research interests in this direction which focus on handling various problems in network slicing.This paper aims at constructing this area of knowledge by introducing network slice from a standardization point of view to start with,and presenting security,privacy,and trust challenges of network slicing in 5G and beyond networks.Furthermore,this paper covers distributed ledger technologies basics and related approaches that tackle security,privacy,and trust threats in network slicing for 5G and beyond networks.The various proposals proposed in the literature are compared and presented.Lastly,limitations of current work and open challenges are illustrated as well.

Downlink Resource Allocation for NOMA-Based Hybrid Spectrum Access in Cognitive Network

To solve the contradiction between limited spectrum resources and increasing communication demand,this paper proposes a wireless resource allocation scheme based on the Deep Q Network(DQN)to allocate radio resources in a downlink multi-user cognitive radio(CR)network with slicing.Secondary users(SUs)are multiplexed using non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA).The SUs use the hybrid spectrum access mode to improve the spectral efficiency(SE).Considering the demand for multiple services,the enhanced mobile broadband(eMBB)slice and ultrareliable low-latency communication(URLLC)slice were established.The proposed scheme can maximize the SE while ensuring Quality of Service(QoS)for the users.This study established a mapping relationship between resource allocation and the DQN algorithm in the CR-NOMA network.According to the signal-to-interference-plusnoise ratio(SINR)of the primary users(PUs),the proposed scheme can output the optimal channel selection and power allocation.The simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme can converge faster and obtain higher rewards compared with the Q-Learning scheme.Additionally,the proposed scheme has better SE than both the overlay and underlay only modes.

Flex Ethernet Technology and Application in 5G Mobile Transport Network

With the advent of 5G era,the rise of cloud services,virtual reality/virtual reality(AR/VR),vehicle networking and other technologies has put forward new requirements for the bandwidth and delay of the bearer network.Traditional Ethernet technology cannot meet the new requirements very well.Flex Ethernet(FlexE)technology has emerged as the times require.This paper introduces the background,standardization process,functional principle,application mode and technical advantages of FlexE technology,and finally analyses its application prospects and shortcomings in 5G mobile transport network.

Evaluation of 5G Core Slicing on User Plane Function

Network slicing is one of the most important features in 5G which enables a large variety of services with diverse performance requirements by network virtualization. Traditionally, the network can be viewed as a one-size-fits-all slice and its services are bundled with proprietary hardware supported by telecom equipment providers. Now with the network virtualization technology in 5G, open networking software can be deployed flexibly on commodity hardware to offer a multi-slice network where each slice can offer a different set of network services. In this research, we propose a multi-slice 5G core architecture by provisioning its User Plane Functions (UPFs) with different QoS requirements. We compare the performance of such a multi-slice system with that of one-size-fits-all single slice architecture under the same resource assignment. Our research objective is to compare the performance of a network slicing architecture with that of a “one-size-fits-all” architecture and validate that the former can achieve better performance with the same underlying infrastructure. The results validate that our proposed system can achieve better performance by slicing one UPF into three with proper resource allocation.

Cognitive RAN Slicing Resource Allocation Based on Stackelberg Game

The cognitive network has become a promising method to solve the spectrum resources shortage problem.Especially for the optimization of network slicing resources in the cognitive radio access network(RAN),we are interested in the profit of the mobile virtual network operator(MVNO)and the utility of secondary users(SUs).In cognitive RAN,we aim to find the optimal scheme for the MVNO to efficiently allocate slice resources to SUs.Since the MVNO and SUs are selfish and the game between the MVNO and SUs is difficult to reach equilibrium,we consider modeling this scheme as a Stackelberg game.Leveraging mathematical programming with equilibrium constraints(MPEC)and Karush-Kuhn-Tucker(KKT)conditions,we can obtain a single-level optimization problem,and then prove that the problem is a convex optimization problem.The simulation results show that the proposed method is superior to the noncooperative game.While guaranteeing the Quality of Service(QoS)of primary users(PUs)and SUs,the proposed method can balance the profit of the MVNO and the utility of SUs.

Demand Prediction Based Slice Reconfiguration Using Dueling Deep Q-Network

To satisfy diversified service demands of vertical industries,network slicing enables efficient resource allocation of a common infrastructure by creating isolated logical networks.However,uncertainty and dynamics of service demands will cause performance degradation.Due to operation costs and resource constraints,it is challenging to maintain high quality of user experience while obtaining high revenue for service providers(SPs).This paper develops an optimal and fast slice reconfiguration(OFSR)framework based on reinforcement learning,where a novel scheme is proposed to offer optimal decisions for reconfiguring diverse slices.A demand prediction model is proposed to capture changes in resource requirements,based on which the OFSR scheme is triggered to determine whether to perform slice reconfiguration.Considering the large state and action spaces generated from uncertain service time and resource requirements,deep dueling architecture is adopted to improve the convergence rate.Extensive simulations validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework in achieving higher long-term revenue for SPs.

Blockchain-enabled resource management and sharing for 6G communications

The sixth-generation(6G)network must provide better performance than previous generations to meet the requirements of emerging services and applications,such as multi-gigabit transmission rate,higher reliability,and sub-1 ms latency and ubiquitous connection for the Internet of Everything(IoE).However,with the scarcity of spectrum resources,efficient resource management and sharing are crucial to achieving all these ambitious requirements.One possible technology to achieve all this is the blockchain.Because of its inherent properties,the blockchain has recently gained an important position,which is of great significance to the 6G network and other networks.In particular,the integration of the blockchain in 6G will enable the network to monitor and manage resource utilization and sharing efficiently.Hence,in this paper,we discuss the potentials of the blockchain for resource management and sharing in 6G using multiple application scenarios,namely,Internet of things,deviceto-device communications,network slicing,and inter-domain blockchain ecosystems.

An intelligent self-sustained RAN slicing framework for diverse service provisioning in 5G-beyond and 6G networks

Network slicing is a key technology to support the concurrent provisioning of heterogeneous Quality of Service(QoS)in the 5th Generation(5G)-beyond and the 6th Generation(6G)networks.However,effective slicing of Radio Access Network(RAN)is very challenging due to the diverse QoS requirements and dynamic conditions in the 6G networks.In this paper,we propose a self-sustained RAN slicing framework,which integrates the self-management of network resources with multiple granularities,the self-optimization of slicing control performance,and self-learning together to achieve an adaptive control strategy under unforeseen network conditions.The proposed RAN slicing framework is hierarchically structured,which decomposes the RAN slicing control into three levels,i.e.,network-level slicing,next generation NodeB(gNodeB)-level slicing,and packet scheduling level slicing.At the network level,network resources are assigned to each gNodeB at a large timescale with coarse resource granularity.At the gNodeB-level,each gNodeB adjusts the configuration of each slice in the cell at the large timescale.At the packet scheduling level,each gNodeB allocates radio resource allocation among users in each network slice at a small timescale.Furthermore,we utilize the transfer learning approach to enable the transition from a model-based control to an autonomic and self-learning RAN slicing control.With the proposed RAN slicing framework,the QoS performance of emerging services is expected to be dramatically enhanced.

SEMBeF:一种基于分片循环神经网络的敏感高效的恶意代码行为检测框架

词向量和循环神经网络(Recurrent Neural Network,RNN)能够识别语义和时序信息,在自然语言识别方面中取得了巨大成功。同时,代码运行时产生的API调用序列也反映了代码的真实意图,因此我们将之应用于恶意代码识别中,期望在取得较高正确率的同时减少人工提取和分析代码特征工作。然而仍然存在三个问题:1)不少恶意代码故意通过随机混合调用敏感API和非敏感API破坏正常的上下文,对这两种API同等对待可能产生漏报;2)为尽可能全面收集代码行为,代码运行期间产生的API序列长度较长,这将导致RNN学习时间过长;3)经典RNN常用的softmax分类函数泛化能力不强,准确率有待提高。为了解决上述问题,本文提出了一种基于分片RNN(Sliced Recurrent Neural Network,SRNN)的敏感高效的恶意代码行为检测架构SEMBeF。在SEMBeF中,我们提出了一种安全敏感API权重增强的敏感词向量算法,使得代码表示结果既包含上下文信息又包含安全敏感权重信息;我们还提出了一种SGRU-SVM网络结构,通过并行计算大幅降低了因代码API调用序列过长引起的训练时间过长的问题,提高了检测正确率;最后针对样本平衡和网络模型超参数选择问题进行了优化,进一步提高了检测正确率。本文还实现了SEMBeF验证系统,实验表明,与其他基于经典词向量和RNN的深度学习方法以及常用的机器学习方法相比,SEMBeF不仅检测正确率最高,训练效率也得到了显著提升。其中,检测正确率和训练时间分别为99.40%和210分钟,与传统RNN相比,正确率提高了0.48%,训练时间下降了96.6%。

Coordinated Management of 5G Core Slices by MANO and OSS/BSS

To manage and orchestrate Network Slices (NSs) for 5G Core (5GC), the MANO (MANagement and Orchestration) framework is proposed by European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI). In most research testbeds, MANO systems such as Tacker, OSM and ONAP are used to initiate network slices. However, this doesn’t comply with the 3GPP 5G standards as MANO should only be responsible for dynamic management of NSs, and the static management such as provisioning or unprovisioning a network slice should be left to OSS/BSS (Operation/Business Support System). Thus, in our testbed, an integrated architecture was designed in which the management of network slices will be coordinated by both MANO and OSS/BSS. MANO would handle on-boarding, instantiating, scaling and terminating of network slices while OSS/BSS is responsible for static management of slices including provisioning and unprovisioning of network slices. To evaluate our system, it was compared with the management systems equipped with only OSS/BSS or MANO in order to analyze the shortfalls of those systems when used to deploy network slices. Through this analysis, this research confirms the necessity of applying both OSS/BSS and MANO for the coordinated management of 5G core slices as adopted by 3GPP.

Ten Reflections on 5G

5G takes the concept of service-oriented architecture to replace the priority principle of network efficiency in the Internet to meet requirements of the industrial Internet and smart cities,such as high reliability and low latency.On the other hand,in order to adapt to the uncertainty of future business,5G features the openness of services and the Internet protocols,different from the closeness of traditional telecommunication networks.Although 5G tries to have the advantages of both the Internet and telecommunication network,its realization still faces many challenges.In this paper,ten major issues concerning 5G networking and service offering are discussed.

Evaluating Dedicated Slices of Different Configurations in 5G Core

Network slicing is one of the most important concepts in 5G networks. It is enabled by the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) technology to allow a set of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) to be interconnected to form a Network Service (NS). When network slices are created in 5G, some are shared among different 5G services while the others are dedicated to specific 5G services. The latter are called dedicated slices. Dedicated slices can be constructed with different configurations. In this research, dedicated slices of different configurations in 5G Core were evaluated in order to discover which one would perform better than the others. The performance of three systems would be compared: 1) Free5GC Stage 2 with each dedicated slice consisting of only UPF;2) Free5GC Stage 3 with each dedicated slice consisting of only UPF;3) Free5GC Stage 3 with each dedicated slice consisting of both SMF and UPF in terms of their registration time, response time, throughput, resource cost, and CPU utilization. It is shown that not one of the above systems will always be the best choice;based on the requirements, a specific system may be the best under a specific situation.