Optimal Embedding of Heterogeneous RAN Slices for Secure and Technology-Agnostic RANaaS

Abstract

A key challenge related to Radio Access Network (RAN) slicing is deciding how to efficiently map radio resources from the physical radio to realise RAN slices, known as the virtual wireless network embedding problem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to model and derive an analytical solution for embedding heterogeneous RAN slices with different waveforms, numerologies and Radio Access Technologies (RATs) with resources isolated down to the Physical (PHY) layer, ultimately enabling secure technology-agnostic RAN as a Service (RANaaS). First, we assess how current virtual wireless network embedding solutions model the allocation of radio resources to realise RAN slices. Then, we propose a graph-based model for embedding heterogeneous RAN slices that considers the guard bands required to ensure isolation in the frequency domain. This approach is transparent to the type and granularity of radio resources of each RAN slice, and can be extended to support RAN slices with new waveforms, numerologies and RATs. Next, we introduce a resource management optimisation problem solved at the Network Provider (NP) to determine the optimal embedding of RAN slices that maximises the total useful bandwidth occupied by tenants; and we propose three different heuristic algorithms to obtain solutions in near real-time. We compare their performance against the analytical solution using different metrics, and our results show that the best heuristic depends on the NP’s business model, e.g., using the Greedy Algorithm (GA) to increase resource utilisation or the Nearest Neighbour Algorithm (NNA) to increase the number of allocated RAN slices.