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Main Authors: Bhat, Mahesh Ganesh, Moothedath, Shana, Chaporkar, Prasanna
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03108
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author Bhat, Mahesh Ganesh
Moothedath, Shana
Chaporkar, Prasanna
author_facet Bhat, Mahesh Ganesh
Moothedath, Shana
Chaporkar, Prasanna
contents We develop a structure-aware reinforcement learning (RL) approach for delay- and energy-aware flow allocation in 5G User Plane Functions (UPFs). We consider a dynamic system with $K$ heterogeneous UPFs of varying capacities that handle stochastic arrivals of $M$ flow types, each with distinct rate requirements. We model the system as a Markov decision process (MDP) to capture the stochastic nature of flow arrivals and departures (possibly unknown), as well as the impact of flow allocation in the system. To solve this problem, we propose a post-decision state (PDS) based value iteration algorithm that exploits the underlying structure of the MDP. By separating action-controlled dynamics from exogenous factors, PDS enables faster convergence and efficient adaptive flow allocation, even in the absence of statistical knowledge about exogenous variables. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method converges faster and achieves lower long-term cost than standard Q-learning, highlighting the effectiveness of PDS-based RL for resource allocation in wireless networks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_03108
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Post-Decision State-Based Online Learning for Delay-Energy-Aware Flow Allocation in Wireless Systems
Bhat, Mahesh Ganesh
Moothedath, Shana
Chaporkar, Prasanna
Signal Processing
We develop a structure-aware reinforcement learning (RL) approach for delay- and energy-aware flow allocation in 5G User Plane Functions (UPFs). We consider a dynamic system with $K$ heterogeneous UPFs of varying capacities that handle stochastic arrivals of $M$ flow types, each with distinct rate requirements. We model the system as a Markov decision process (MDP) to capture the stochastic nature of flow arrivals and departures (possibly unknown), as well as the impact of flow allocation in the system. To solve this problem, we propose a post-decision state (PDS) based value iteration algorithm that exploits the underlying structure of the MDP. By separating action-controlled dynamics from exogenous factors, PDS enables faster convergence and efficient adaptive flow allocation, even in the absence of statistical knowledge about exogenous variables. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method converges faster and achieves lower long-term cost than standard Q-learning, highlighting the effectiveness of PDS-based RL for resource allocation in wireless networks.
title Post-Decision State-Based Online Learning for Delay-Energy-Aware Flow Allocation in Wireless Systems
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.03108