On the feasibility of using an autonomic control loop and automated planning for tenant-oriented reconfiguration of network slices

Abstract

In 5G, 6G and beyond networks, tenants need capabilities to reconfigure network slices since they must react quickly to changing network conditions and end-users’ demands to meet Service Level Agreements. Offering reconfiguration operations to tenants is challenging since those functions must be autonomous and governed by high-level network management policies. Existing approaches face the network slice reconfiguration problem from the provider perspective, disregarding the importance of providing slice reconfiguration capabilities to tenants. This paper presents an approach called ATRAP to demonstrate the feasibility of using an autonomic control loop and automated planning for reconfiguring network slices from the tenant perspective. ATRAP introduces a tenant-oriented architecture based on the monitor-analyze-plan-execute-knowledge method and automated planning for computing reconfiguration plans autonomously. An ATRAP’s plan aims to turn a network from a source configuration where one or more intents representing high-level network management policies are unmet into a target configuration in which the network meets the intents again. As ATRAP represents a network slice as a Service Function Chain comprising Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and virtual links connecting them, a reconfiguration plan involves tasks to migrate VNFs and virtual links into the substrate network in a particular order. Results revealed as ATRAP computes plans with few migrations of VNFs and their adjacent links, leading to low reconfiguration costs related to short service disruptions. Also, results showed as ATRAP’s planning time depends on the size of the substrate network and the tenant’s slices. The results evidence that ATRAP is an attractive and feasible solution for the in-tenant reconfiguration of network slices.