Network slicing (NS) is a promising solution for media services, such as live streaming in telecom networks. NS enables customised network conditions for different applications and requirements. This customisation granularity is further enhanced through the use of 5G Quality of Service (QoS) flows for intra-slice management. Given the fact that network slices are becoming more dedicated to specific services' quality requirements, it becomes important to find service-aware NS methods that guarantee service quality while minimising resource consumption. To this end, this paper presents a Maximum Likelihood-based Network Slicing (MaxLiNS) method that minimises resource consumption with guaranteed Quality of Experience (QoE) for live low-latency streaming service under playback buffer level estimation and control. We evaluated the MaxLiNS method against existing service-agnostic and emerging service-aware NS methods on our End-to-End (E2E) 5G testbed. The results show that the MaxLiNS outperforms existing NS methods in terms of quality guarantee and resource consumption minimisation.

The emergence of beyond 5G and 6G networks is set to revolutionise telecommunications, addressing the demands of emerging applications through advanced capabilities. At the core of this transformation lies next-generation intelligent service orchestration, which is essential for meeting future Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Key Value Indicators (KVIs) such as ultra-low latency, efficient power consumption and resource utilisation. These capabilities require multi-objective, seamless end-to-end service delivery across complex, distributed environments. Achieving such delivery requires scalable and modular system design approaches that support dynamic service composition and adaptability. Cloud-native technologies, underpinned by microservices architectures, plays a pivotal role, but also will introduce challenges in orchestrating resources efficiently across heterogeneous domains. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a solution, Federated Intelligent multi-objective Service function chain Orchestration (FISO) that integrates multi-objective federated profiling to preserve privacy while ensuring efficient end-to-end service delivery. FISO integrates Federated Learning (FL) and Reinforcement Learning (RL). FL is used to collaboratively learn from distributed edge profiling clients without sharing raw data, while RL dynamically guides optimal decision making for resource allocation and Service Function Chain (SFC) placement based on feedback from the federated models. FISO predicts optimal computing and network resources for SFCs, enabling the selection of appropriate edge locations, efficient resource allocation, placement of SFCs, and lifecycle management. Experimental results demonstrated on a pragmatic testbed validate the effectiveness of FISO in efficiently placing requested SFCs within an administrative domain with multiple edge/cloud nodes, predicting optimal CPU, memory, and link capacity resources, and minimising end-to-end latency and energy consumption.

Federated Learning (FL) enables collaborative model training across edge devices while preserving data locally. Deploying FL faces challenges due to device heterogeneity. Using cloud technologies like Kubernetes (K8s) can offer computational elasticity, yet may compromise FL privacy principles. K8s can jeopardise FL privacy by potentially allowing malicious FL clients to access other resources given its flat networking approach. This paper introduces the privacy-preserving K8s operator kubeFlower. It addresses privacy risks via isolation-by-design and differential privacy for data management. Isolation ensures secure resource sharing, while differential privacy safeguards individual data privacy. We introduce the Privacy Preserving Persistent Volume Claimer (P3-VC), which adds noise to data while managing a privacy budget. kubeFlower simplifies FL system management in K8s while ensuring privacy. We tested our approach on a network testbed composed of different geo-located cloud and edge nodes where FL clients are deployed. Our results demonstrate the approach’s efficacy in preserving privacy in K8s-based FL for cloud–edge environments.

Leveraging the potential of Virtualised Network Functions (VNFs) requires a clear understanding of the link between resource consumption and performance. The current state of the art tries to do that by utilising machine learning and specifically Supervised Learning (SL) models for given network environments and VNF types assuming single-objective optimisation targets. Taking a different approach, iOn-Profiler poses a novel VNF profiler optimising multi-resource type allocation and performance objectives using adapted Reinforcement Learning (RL). Our approach can meet key performance indicator targets while minimising multi-resource type consumption and optimising the VNF output rate compared to existing single-objective solutions. Our experimental evaluation with three real-world VNF types over a total of 39 study scenarios (13 per VNF), for three resource types (virtual CPU, memory, and network link capacity), verifies the accuracy of resource allocation predictions and corresponding successful profiling decisions via a benchmark comparison between our RL model and SL models. We also conduct a complementary exhaustive search-space study revealing that different resources impact performance in varying ways per VNF type, implying the necessity of multi-objective optimisation, individualised examination per VNF type, and adaptable online profile learning, such as with the autonomous online learning approach of iOn-Profiler.

Integrating mobile networks with Non-3GPP networks provides a promising solution to mitigate the wireless RF spectrum scarcity. Despite the maturity of integration technologies, a comprehensive approach for radio resource allocation in highly dynamic and complex multiple Radio Access Technologies (multi-RAT) networks is still lacking. To tackle this challenge, this paper proposes an Access Traffic Management (ATM) system that enhances radio resource allocation during access, transmission, and handover processes. The system features a scalable and concise ATM-supported multi-RAT network architecture, supported by a Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) based Intelligent ATM (IATM) algorithm. To evaluate the proposed system, a Network Simulator 3 (NS3) based network simulation is built with realistic 5G and WiFi modules, interacting with the IATM algorithm in real time for decision making and policy improvement. Numerical improvements of our solution demonstrate its superiority over conventional steering modes. Our solution achieves an increase in resource utilization efficiency by 45% and 70% compared to the Active-Standby and Load-Balance steering modes, respectively. Moreover, it enhances link quality by a factor of three and doubles throughput without incurring any additional costs. Additionally, our solution significantly enhances session stability under conditions involving network size dynamics and UE mobility.

Ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) services are intrinsically challenging to deliver, with many 5G and future services, including mobile game streaming, adding further complexity by demanding zero service downtime in high-mobility scenarios. Solving these challenges is essential and must be addressed beyond mobile gaming to realise a multitude of current and future services like eX-tended/Virtual Reality(XR/VR) or holoportation in mobile scenarios. Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) brings services “closer” to user consumption with evident advantages yet at the cost of maintaining a zero downtime guarantee when user handovers (HOs) are prevalent due to the decentralisation of services towards the network edge. In this work, we design and evaluate intelligent HO prediction models between radio 5G Base Stations. The motivation for timely user HO prediction lies in being a vital presupposition for path steering and other MANO control actions in contemporary programmable 5G networks to deliver a zero downtime perception during HO events. Our detailed simulation and actual testbed evaluation results show that effective HO prediction can be achieved using a combination of Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) or gradient boost regression with classification models, with the latter filtering out any Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) prediction input outliers for predicting the serving cell.

Currently, telecommunication research communities are striving towards the adoption of Zero-touch network and Service Management (ZSM) in Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) orchestration. Contemporary efforts on adopting Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have caused an upsurge of ZSM application in the VNF space. While ML and AI complement the ZSM goals for building the intelligent NFV orchestration, a deep knowledge about the resource consumption by Network Services (NSs) and its constituent Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) is required, which would enable AI and ML models to manage the available resources better and enhance user experience. In this article, we propose a Novel Autonomous Profiling (NAP) method that not only predicts the optimum network load a VNF can support but also estimates the required resources in terms of CPU, Memory, and Network, to meet the performance targets and workload by utilising ML techniques. Our performance evaluation results on real datasets show that the output of NAP can be used in the next generation of NFV orchestration.

To meet the challenge of flexible and dynamic resource provisioning for massive and various network services, we investigate the network function virtualization-resource allocation problem in the 5G network. For the first time, this problem is modelled as the congestion game to capture the effects of resource congestion on packet processing latency, optical-to-electronic and electronic-to-optical conversion latency. All the network service requests received at the same time are players trying to minimise their own end-to-end latency and resource consumption cost. A distributed online algorithm is designed and simulation results show that it can achieve 100% service acceptance ratio while the baseline algorithm cannot. If lower weighted resource consumption cost is set for 1ms and 5ms services, more such services will be routed to edge nodes and network operators will earn more. An experiment for network services with different packet sizes is carried out, and results prove that the proposed algorithm converges to Nash Equilibrium in 40 seconds and the latency requirements are all satisfied if the packet size is small.