1,830 research outputs found
Learning Augmented Optimization for Network Softwarization in 5G
The rapid uptake of mobile devices and applications are posing unprecedented traffic burdens on the existing networking infrastructures. In order to maximize both user experience and investment return, the networking and communications systems are evolving to the next gen- eration – 5G, which is expected to support more flexibility, agility, and intelligence towards provisioned services and infrastructure management. Fulfilling these tasks is challenging, as nowadays networks are increasingly heterogeneous, dynamic and expanded with large sizes. Network softwarization is one of the critical enabling technologies to implement these requirements in 5G. In addition to these problems investigated in preliminary researches about this technology, many new emerging application requirements and advanced opti- mization & learning technologies are introducing more challenges & opportunities for its fully application in practical production environment. This motivates this thesis to develop a new learning augmented optimization technology, which merges both the advanced opti- mization and learning techniques to meet the distinct characteristics of the new application environment. To be more specific, the abstracts of the key contents in this thesis are listed as follows: • We first develop a stochastic solution to augment the optimization of the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) services in dynamical networks. In contrast to the dominant NFV solutions applied for the deterministic networking environments, the inherent network dynamics and uncertainties from 5G infrastructure are impeding the rollout of NFV in many emerging networking applications. Therefore, Chapter 3 investigates the issues of network utility degradation when implementing NFV in dynamical networks, and proposes a robust NFV solution with full respect to the underlying stochastic features. By exploiting the hierarchical decision structures in this problem, a distributed computing framework with two-level decomposition is designed to facilitate a distributed implementation of the proposed model in large-scale networks. • Next, Chapter 4 aims to intertwin the traditional optimization and learning technologies. In order to reap the merits of both optimization and learning technologies but avoid their limitations, promissing integrative approaches are investigated to combine the traditional optimization theories with advanced learning methods. Subsequently, an online optimization process is designed to learn the system dynamics for the network slicing problem, another critical challenge for network softwarization. Specifically, we first present a two-stage slicing optimization model with time-averaged constraints and objective to safeguard the network slicing operations in time-varying networks. Directly solving an off-line solution to this problem is intractable since the future system realizations are unknown before decisions. To address this, we combine the historical learning and Lyapunov stability theories, and develop a learning augmented online optimization approach. This facilitates the system to learn a safe slicing solution from both historical records and real-time observations. We prove that the proposed solution is always feasible and nearly optimal, up to a constant additive factor. Finally, simulation experiments are also provided to demonstrate the considerable improvement of the proposals. • The success of traditional solutions to optimizing the stochastic systems often requires solving a base optimization program repeatedly until convergence. For each iteration, the base program exhibits the same model structure, but only differing in their input data. Such properties of the stochastic optimization systems encourage the work of Chapter 5, in which we apply the latest deep learning technologies to abstract the core structures of an optimization model and then use the learned deep learning model to directly generate the solutions to the equivalent optimization model. In this respect, an encoder-decoder based learning model is developed in Chapter 5 to improve the optimization of network slices. In order to facilitate the solving of the constrained combinatorial optimization program in a deep learning manner, we design a problem-specific decoding process by integrating program constraints and problem context information into the training process. The deep learning model, once trained, can be used to directly generate the solution to any specific problem instance. This avoids the extensive computation in traditional approaches, which re-solve the whole combinatorial optimization problem for every instance from the scratch. With the help of the REINFORCE gradient estimator, the obtained deep learning model in the experiments achieves significantly reduced computation time and optimality loss
Elastic Multi-resource Network Slicing: Can Protection Lead to Improved Performance?
In order to meet the performance/privacy requirements of future
data-intensive mobile applications, e.g., self-driving cars, mobile data
analytics, and AR/VR, service providers are expected to draw on shared
storage/computation/connectivity resources at the network "edge". To be
cost-effective, a key functional requirement for such infrastructure is
enabling the sharing of heterogeneous resources amongst tenants/service
providers supporting spatially varying and dynamic user demands. This paper
proposes a resource allocation criterion, namely, Share Constrained Slicing
(SCS), for slices allocated predefined shares of the network's resources, which
extends the traditional alpha-fairness criterion, by striking a balance among
inter- and intra-slice fairness vs. overall efficiency. We show that SCS has
several desirable properties including slice-level protection, envyfreeness,
and load driven elasticity. In practice, mobile users' dynamics could make the
cost of implementing SCS high, so we discuss the feasibility of using a simpler
(dynamically) weighted max-min as a surrogate resource allocation scheme. For a
setting with stochastic loads and elastic user requirements, we establish a
sufficient condition for the stability of the associated coupled network
system. Finally, and perhaps surprisingly, we show via extensive simulations
that while SCS (and/or the surrogate weighted max-min allocation) provides
inter-slice protection, they can achieve improved job delay and/or perceived
throughput, as compared to other weighted max-min based allocation schemes
whose intra-slice weight allocation is not share-constrained, e.g., traditional
max-min or discriminatory processor sharing
Statistical Multiplexing and Traffic Shaping Games for Network Slicing
Next generation wireless architectures are expected to enable slices of
shared wireless infrastructure which are customized to specific mobile
operators/services. Given infrastructure costs and the stochastic nature of
mobile services' spatial loads, it is highly desirable to achieve efficient
statistical multiplexing amongst such slices. We study a simple dynamic
resource sharing policy which allocates a 'share' of a pool of (distributed)
resources to each slice-Share Constrained Proportionally Fair (SCPF). We give a
characterization of SCPF's performance gains over static slicing and general
processor sharing. We show that higher gains are obtained when a slice's
spatial load is more 'imbalanced' than, and/or 'orthogonal' to, the aggregate
network load, and that the overall gain across slices is positive. We then
address the associated dimensioning problem. Under SCPF, traditional network
dimensioning translates to a coupled share dimensioning problem, which
characterizes the existence of a feasible share allocation given slices'
expected loads and performance requirements. We provide a solution to robust
share dimensioning for SCPF-based network slicing. Slices may wish to
unilaterally manage their users' performance via admission control which
maximizes their carried loads subject to performance requirements. We show this
can be modeled as a 'traffic shaping' game with an achievable Nash equilibrium.
Under high loads, the equilibrium is explicitly characterized, as are the gains
in the carried load under SCPF vs. static slicing. Detailed simulations of a
wireless infrastructure supporting multiple slices with heterogeneous mobile
loads show the fidelity of our models and range of validity of our high load
equilibrium analysis
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