IDSM: Intent-Driven Slice Management and Maintenance for 6G RANs
Jingwen Zhang, Chungang Yang, Alagan Anpalagan, Ru Dong, Lulu Zhang · 2022
The next-generation wireless communication networks need to support various vertical industries and emerging use cases, with diverse services making the network architecture increasingly complex. Network slicing enables service-oriented management and maintenance by dividing the infrastructure into multiple logical networks to meet diverse and stringent requirements. However, faced with a large tenant base and personalized slicing requirements, network slice providers should put significant effort to complete the lifecycle management of the slices, which severely hinders the implementation of the large-scale end-to-end sliced network. Intent-driven network (IDN) can be used to reduce the complexity of management and maintenance for 6G Radio Access Networks (RANs) by automating the configuration and operation of managed networks with a high-level abstraction of intent. Therefore, we present the framework of Intent-driven Slice Management and Maintenance for 6G RANs, which is termed as IDSM. Firstly, we describe its architecture, followed by the three key technologies of intent translation, slice generation, and Deep Q Network (DQN) intent maintenance. Finally, OpenAirInterface (OAI) platform and FlexRAN Software-Defined-Network (SDN) controller with DQN are used to demonstrate the presented IDSM.