DRL-based Latency-Aware Network Slicing in O-RAN with Time-Varying SLAs

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Raftopoulos, Raoul, D'Oro, Salvatore, Melodia, Tommaso, Schembra, Giovanni
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916991674089472
author Raftopoulos, Raoul
D'Oro, Salvatore
Melodia, Tommaso
Schembra, Giovanni
author_facet Raftopoulos, Raoul
D'Oro, Salvatore
Melodia, Tommaso
Schembra, Giovanni
contents The Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) paradigm, and its reference architecture proposed by the O-RAN Alliance, is paving the way toward open, interoperable, observable and truly intelligent cellular networks. Crucial to this evolution is Machine Learning (ML), which will play a pivotal role by providing the necessary tools to realize the vision of self-organizing O-RAN systems. However, to be actionable, ML algorithms need to demonstrate high reliability, effectiveness in delivering high performance, and the ability to adapt to varying network conditions, traffic demands and performance requirements. To address these challenges, in this paper we propose a novel Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent design for O-RAN applications that can learn control policies under varying Service Level Agreement (SLAs) with heterogeneous minimum performance requirements. We focus on the case of RAN slicing and SLAs specifying maximum tolerable end-to-end latency levels. We use the OpenRAN Gym open-source environment to train a DRL agent that can adapt to varying SLAs and compare it against the state-of-the-art. We show that our agent maintains a low SLA violation rate that is 8.3x and 14.4x lower than approaches based on Deep Q- Learning (DQN) and Q-Learning while consuming respectively 0.3x and 0.6x fewer resources without the need for re-training.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2401_05042
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle DRL-based Latency-Aware Network Slicing in O-RAN with Time-Varying SLAs
Raftopoulos, Raoul
D'Oro, Salvatore
Melodia, Tommaso
Schembra, Giovanni
Networking and Internet Architecture
The Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) paradigm, and its reference architecture proposed by the O-RAN Alliance, is paving the way toward open, interoperable, observable and truly intelligent cellular networks. Crucial to this evolution is Machine Learning (ML), which will play a pivotal role by providing the necessary tools to realize the vision of self-organizing O-RAN systems. However, to be actionable, ML algorithms need to demonstrate high reliability, effectiveness in delivering high performance, and the ability to adapt to varying network conditions, traffic demands and performance requirements. To address these challenges, in this paper we propose a novel Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent design for O-RAN applications that can learn control policies under varying Service Level Agreement (SLAs) with heterogeneous minimum performance requirements. We focus on the case of RAN slicing and SLAs specifying maximum tolerable end-to-end latency levels. We use the OpenRAN Gym open-source environment to train a DRL agent that can adapt to varying SLAs and compare it against the state-of-the-art. We show that our agent maintains a low SLA violation rate that is 8.3x and 14.4x lower than approaches based on Deep Q- Learning (DQN) and Q-Learning while consuming respectively 0.3x and 0.6x fewer resources without the need for re-training.
title DRL-based Latency-Aware Network Slicing in O-RAN with Time-Varying SLAs
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05042