Page 195 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2021

A REVIEW OF NETWORK SLICING IN 5G AND BEYOND: INTELLIGENT
APPROACHES AND CHALLENGES

Ghazal Rahmanian; Hadi Shahriar Shahhoseini; Amir Hossein Jafari Pozveh

School of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran

proposed to support extensive network services. Network
ABSTRACT slicing is made possible by Software Defined Network
(SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
Artificial intelligence has the ability to provide simple technologies. By dividing a single physical network into
solutions to complex problems by analyzing huge volumes of several logical networks, each can provide services tailored
data in a short amount of time with appropriate accuracy. to a distinct application. Fifth generation network slices are
With the emergence of slicing technology, Fifth Generation flexible and highly adaptable and they can handle a variety
communication networks(5G) are becoming more complex of services simultaneously on the same network
due to supporting a large number of new connected devices infrastructure.
and new types of services. Concerning this complexity,
intelligent techniques can become beneficial in these In slicing, a single physical infrastructure is divided into
networks. In this paper after a brief review of network slices. Network slices are defined as logical End-to-End
slicing through a new functionality model including design, (E2E) networks, each of which with independent control
deployment, monitoring and management of slices, the need and management, provides one or more types of services
for automation of network operations in network slices is related to its users. Due to the customization of slices, users
discussed. Our investigation of recent research has shown that receive the services with good quality, increasing the
artificial intelligence and machine learning have a clear revenue of the operators. To introduce network slicing, it
potential to become one of the most important enablers in the is necessary to redesign the traditional mobile networks and
5G network and beyond. to do that, a huge amount of data must be processed
periodically, increasing network management complexity.
Keywords – 5G, artificial intelligence, machine Therefore, traditional human-derived approaches will no
learning, network slicing, SDN longer be useful and artificial intelligence must be put to use
to automate slice management in 5G network [3].
1. INTRODUCTION
The main purpose of this article is to review the studies
Fifth Generation (5G) systems are designed to support a conducted in the field of intelligent 5G network slicing to
wide range of services and devices, and mobile networks will identify the remaining challenges and open issues to address
have to support more traffic in the near future. It is also potential future research opportunities.
expected to enable high speed data transfer in these
applications. Existing networks are filled with a wide range 2. NETWORK SLICING IN 5G
of integrated and dedicated hardware. Due to the high rigid
nature of these traditional architectures, it is difficult to Mobile devices have become an essential part of our daily
introduce new services in these networks [1]. lives, making the mobile network infrastructure an important
issue. Fifth Generation (5G) mobile systems are designed to
Fifth generation networks are predicted to be essential for a support a wide range of services and devices. These services
huge range of needs. The stark differences between the main with different features increase the volume of information
applications of these systems indicate that the diverse and data along with the number of devices in the network.
applications of 5G networks cannot be supported by current The current architecture is not flexible enough to support
network architectures [2]. Existing networks with diverse new services presented in 5G networks. Moreover,
conventional designs are not flexible and scalable to satisfy with day to day growing services and consumer demands, the
these diverse requirements. Therefore, we need other need for faster connectivity and higher speed data transfer
solutions to take advantage of the vast applications of 5G intensifies and that cannot be achieved by traditional
networks. In this regard, new technologies have been network architecture. On the other hand, network slicing in
exploited to alter network implementation and operation 5G can provide multiple logical networks on the same
functions, fitting a 5G network, to minimize the total cost of physical infrastructure, lowering the initial cost of network
network infrastructure and to maximize system performance setup [4]. Figure 1 depicts a general view of 5G network
and efficiency. In order to do that, network slicing has been slicing. Network slicing is the technology that enables
having different virtual networks on one physical base.

978-92-61-33881-7/CFP2168P @ ITU 2021 – 133 – Kaleidoscope