Resource utilization – QoS isolation trade-off in 5G networks considering network slicing reconfiguration interval

Abstract

5G network is expected to support a wide range of use cases classified into three service types, eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC, with possibly conflicting QoS requirements and different traffic characteristics. The network slicing concept enables physical and logical separation of network resources and, therefore, QoS isolation. Network slices guarantee QoS requirements by allocating resources in a way that balances both demand and availability while considering resource scarcity. However, it is challenging to achieve effective end-to-end QoS isolation of network slices while maintaining resource utilization efficiency, which we call resource utilization - QoS isolation trade-off. Resource utilization is a performance metric that gives feedback on how efficiently network resources are allocated to slices. Considering the QoS policy of each slice, QoS isolation describes the ability of each slice to fulfill its QoS requirements. In this article, the goal is to describe how different network slicing reconfiguration interval affects the described trade-off and how to adapt it for the mentioned service types. We show through simulations that maximizing resource utilization decreases the QoS isolation and vice versa. As slice resources are granted for a fixed time window, i.e. reconfiguration interval, our article shows how its variations impact both resource utilization and QoS isolation.