Page 136 - ITU Journal, Future and evolving technologies - Volume 1 (2020), Issue 1, Inaugural issue

ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies, Volume 1 (2020), Issue 1

6. CONCLUDING REMARKS [3] RP-201612, “Study on enhancement of RAN
Slicing for NR”, 3GPP TSG RAN Meeting #89e,
ML-assisted solutions with the ability to learn September, 2020.
particular network dynamics and operate under
goal-oriented policies arise as a feasible approach to [4] SP-190931, “Feasibility Study on
tackling the complexity of the cross-slice radio Enhancement of Network Slicing Phase 2”,
resource allocation problem. Beyond the 3GPP TSG-SA Meeting #85, September, 2019.
algorithmic dimension, bringing into the equation [5] SP-200766, “Study on network slice
the information models and the architectural management enhancement”, 3GPP TSG-SA
context for the implementation of these ML-assisted Meeting #89e, September, 2020.
solutions is also key to further progress towards
their practical realization. [6] SP-200571, “Feasibility Study on Enhanced
Access to and Support of Network Slice”, TSG
In this respect, this paper has outlined the building SA Meeting #88e, July, 2020.
blocks of the architectural framework being
established under the O-RAN Alliance for the [7] R. Ferrús, O. Sallent, J. Pérez-Romero, R.
deployment of ML-assisted solutions in the RAN Agustí, “On 5G Radio Access Network Slicing:
along with the different types of information Radio Interface Protocol Features and
models developed by 3GPP for network slice Configuration”, IEEE Communications
management, from service characterization at the Magazine, Vol. 56, No. 5, May, 2018, pp.184-
SLA level down to the specific management 192.
attributes that can be used to configure how radio [8] K. Samdanis, X. Costa-Perez and V.
resources are allocated to the slices within the RAN Sciancalepore, "From network sharing to
nodes. multi-tenancy: The 5G network slice broker,"

Building upon this architectural framework and IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 54, no. 7,
associated information models, the paper has July, 2016, pp. 32-39.
presented a plausible realization of an ML-assisted [9] O. Sallent, J. Pérez-Romero, R. Ferrús, R.
cross-slice radio resource optimization solution Agustí, “On Radio Access Network Slicing
based on the use of multi-agent DQN techniques. from a Radio Resource Management
The presented solution is shown to be a feasible Perspective”, IEEE Wireless Communications,
approach to dynamically adjust the resource Vol. 24. No.5, October, 2017,pp. 166-174.
allocation of the slices to the traffic variations in
order to fulfill an SLA and achieve high resource [10] A. S. D. Alfoudi, S. H. S. Newaz, A. Otebolaku, G.
utilization efficiency. M. Lee and R. Pereira, "An Efficient Resource
Management Mechanism for Network Slicing
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT in a LTE Network”, IEEE Access, Vol. 7, July,
This work has been supported by the Spanish 2019, pp. 89441-89457.
Research Council and FEDER funds under SONAR [11] P. L. Vo, M. N. H. Nguyen, T. A. Le and N. H.
5G grant (ref. TEC2017-82651-R) and by the Tran, "Slicing the Edge: Resource Allocation
Secretariat for Universities and Research of the for RAN Network Slicing," in IEEE Wireless
Ministry of Business and Knowledge of the Communications Letters, Vol. 7, No. 6,
Government of Catalonia under grant 2019FI_B1 December, 2018, pp. 970-973.
00102.
[12] I. Vilà, J. Perez-Romero, O. Sallent, A. Umbert,
REFERENCES “Characterization of Radio Access Network

[1] P. Rost, A. Banchs, I. Berberana, M. Breitbach, Slicing Scenarios with 5G QoS Provisioning”,
M. Doll, H. Droste, C. Mannweiler, M.A. Puente, IEEE Access, Vol. 6, March, 2020, pp. 51414-
K. Samdanis, B. Sayadi, “Mobile network 41430.
architecture evolution toward 5G”, IEEE [13] D. Marabissi, R. Fantacci, "Highly Flexible RAN
Communications Magazine, Vol. 54, No. 5, Slicing Approach to Manage Isolation,
May, 2016, pp. 84-91. Priority, Efficiency”, IEEE Access, Vol. 7, July,
[2] 3GPP TS 23.501 v16.6.0 “System Architecture 2019, pp. 97130-97142.
for the 5G System; Stage 2 (Release 16)”,
September, 2020.

116 © International Telecommunication Union, 2020