AI-Based Resource Allocation in E2E Network Slicing with Both Public and Non-Public Slices

Abstract

Network slicing is a key technology for 5G networks, which divides the traditional physical network into multiple independent logical networks to meet the diverse requirements of end-users. This paper focuses on the resource allocation problem in the scenario where public and non-public network slices coexist. There are two kinds of resources to be allocated: one is the resource blocks (RBs) allocated to the users in the radio access network, and the other is the server resources in the core network. We first formulate the above resource allocation problem as a nonlinear integer programming problem by maximizing the operator profit as the objective function. Then, a combination of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and machine learning (ML) algorithms are used to solve this problem. DRL, more specifically, independent proximal policy optimization (IPPO), is employed to provide the RB allocation scheme that makes the objective function as large as possible. ML, more specifically, random forest (RF), assists DRL agents in receiving fast reward feedback by determining whether the allocation scheme is feasible. The simulation results show that the IPPO-RF algorithm has good performance, i.e., not only are all the constraints satisfied, but the requirements of the non-public network slices are ensured.