Service Function Chaining (SFC) requires efficient placement of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) to satisfy diverse service requirements while maintaining high resource utilization in Data Centers (DCs). Conventional static resource allocation often leads to overprovisioning or underprovisioning due to the dynamic nature of traffic loads and application demands. To address this challenge, we propose a hybrid forecast-driven Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) framework that combines predictive intelligence with SFC provisioning. Specifically, we leverage DRL to generate datasets capturing DC resource utilization and service demands, which are then used to train deep learning forecasting models. Using Optuna-based hyperparameter optimization, the best-performing models, Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Network, Temporal Graph Neural Network, and Long Short-Term Memory, are combined into an ensemble to enhance stability and accuracy. The ensemble predictions are integrated into the DC selection process, enabling proactive placement decisions that consider both current and future resource availability. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method not only sustains high acceptance ratios for resource-intensive services such as Cloud Gaming and VoIP but also significantly improves acceptance ratios for latency-critical categories such as Augmented Reality increases from 30% to 50%, while Industry 4.0 improves from 30% to 45%. Consequently, the prediction-based model achieves significantly lower E2E latencies of 20.5%, 23.8%, and 34.8% reductions for VoIP, Video Streaming, and Cloud Gaming, respectively. This strategy ensures more balanced resource allocation, and reduces contention.

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) demand real-time collision prediction to ensure road safety and reduce accident severity. Conventional approaches rely on transmitting raw video or high-dimensional sensory data from roadside units (RSUs) to vehicles, which is impractical under vehicular communication bandwidth and latency constraints. In this work, we propose a semantic V2X framework in which RSU-mounted cameras generate spatiotemporal semantic embeddings of future frames using the Video Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (V-JEPA). To evaluate the system, we construct a digital twin of an urban traffic environment enabling the generation of d verse traffic scenarios with both safe and collision events. These embeddings of the future frame, extracted from V-JEPA, capture task-relevant traffic dynamics and are transmitted via V2X links to vehicles, where a lightweight attentive probe and classifier decode them to predict imminent collisions. By transmitting only semantic embeddings instead of raw frames, the proposed system significantly reduces communication overhead while maintaining predictive accuracy. Experimental results demonstrate that the framework with an appropriate processing method achieves a 10% F1-score improvement for collision prediction while reducing transmission requirements by four orders of magnitude compared to raw video. This validates the potential of semantic V2X communication to enable cooperative, real-time collision prediction in ITS.

Effective Service Function Chain (SFC) provisioning requires precise orchestration in dynamic and latency-sensitive networks. Reinforcement Learning (RL) improves adaptability but often ignores structured domain knowledge, which limits generalization and interpretability. Large Language Models (LLMs) address this gap by translating natural language (NL) specifications into executable Structured Query Language (SQL) commands for specification-driven SFC management. Conventional fine-tuning, however, can cause syntactic inconsistencies and produce inefficient queries. To overcome this, we introduce Abstract Syntax Tree (AST)-Masking, a structure-aware fine-tuning method that uses SQL ASTs to assign weights to key components and enforce syntax-aware learning without adding inference overhead. Experiments show that AST-Masking significantly improves SQL generation accuracy across multiple language models. FLAN-T5 reaches an Execution Accuracy (EA) of 99.6%, while Gemma achieves the largest absolute gain from 7.5% to 72.0%. These results confirm the effectiveness of structure-aware fine-tuning in ensuring syntactically correct and efficient SQL generation for interpretable SFC orchestration.

High-quality Service Function Chaining (SFC) provisioning is provided by the timely execution of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) in a defined sequence. Advanced Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) solutions are utilized in many studies to contribute to fast and reliable autonomous SFC provisioning. However, under a large-scale network environment, centralized solutions might struggle to provide efficient outcomes when handling massive demands with stringent End-to-End (E2E) delay constraints. Therefore, in this paper, a novel distributed SFC provisioning framework is proposed, where the network is divided into several clusters. Each cluster has a dedicated local agent with a DRL module to handle the SFC provisioning of demands in that cluster. Also, there is a general agent that can communicate with local agents to handle the requests beyond their capacity. The DRL module of local agents can be applied under different configurations of clusters independent of different numbers of data centers and logical links in each cluster. Simulation results demonstrate that utilizing the proposed distributed framework offers up to 60 % improvements in the acceptance ratio of service requests in comparison to the centralized approach while minimizing the E2E delay of accepted requests.

Virtualization technology, Network Function Virtualization (NFV), gives flexibility to communication and 5G core network technologies for dynamic and efficient resource allocation while reducing the cost and dependability of the physical infrastructure. In the NFV context, Service Function Chain (SFC) refers to the ordered arrangement of various Virtual Network Functions (VNFs). To provide an automated SFC provisioning algorithm that satisfies high demands of SFC requests having ultra-reliable and low latency communication (URLLC) requirements, in the literature, Artificial Intelligence (AI) modules and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms are investigated in detail. This research proposes a generative Variational Autoencoder (VAE) assisted advanced-DRL module for handling SFC requests in a dynamic environment where network configurations and request amounts can be changed. Using the hybrid approach, including generative VAE and DRL, the algorithm leverages several advantages, such as dimensionality reduction, better generalization on the VAE side, exploration, and trial-error learning from the DRL model. Results show that GenAI-assisted DRL surpasses the state-of-the-art model of DRL in SFC provisioning in terms of SFC acceptance ratio, E2E delay, and throughput maximization.

In critical situations such as natural disasters, network outages, battlefield communication, or large-scale public events, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer a promising approach to maximize wireless coverage for affected users in the shortest possible time. In this paper, we propose a novel framework where multiple UAVs are deployed with the objective to maximize the number of served user equipment (UEs) while ensuring a predefined data rate threshold. UEs are initially clustered using a K-means algorithm, and UAVs are optimally positioned based on the UEs’ spatial distribution. To optimize power allocation and mitigate inter-cluster interference, we employ the Multi-Agent Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (MADDPG) algorithm, considering both LOS and NLOS fading. Simulation results demonstrate that our method significantly enhances UEs coverage and outperforms Deep Q-Network (DQN) and equal power distribution methods, improving their UE coverage by up to 2.07 times and 8.84 times, respectively.

Machine Learning (ML) techniques have gained extensive attention for network intrusion detection. However, integrating ML approaches faces two primary challenges due to the presence of multi-class attacks and their varying impact levels on the network: the one-size-fits-all dilemma and the consideration of intrusion costs. Since ML models exhibit differing detection performances for each attack class, a single ML model may not suffice for predicting all attacks. Additionally, intrusion cost, a crucial concern for users and network service providers, is often overlooked in intrusion detection scheme development. To address these challenges, we propose a novel ensemble-learning framework called All Predict Cost Efficient Decides (APCED). APCED integrates multiple ML models, selecting an expert ML model for each attack class to minimize intrusion costs. In APCED, both damage cost and response cost determine the cost-efficient base estimators for ensemble learning, with an aggregation strategy employed for final decisions. We evaluate the performance of APCED using the NSL-KDD dataset. Numerical results demonstrate that APCED enhances the overall weighted F1 score by 81.13% compared to Adaboost and achieves an overall cost reduction of 54.7% and 87% compared to XGBoost and Adaboost, respectively.

Service Function Chain (SFC) provisioning stands as a pivotal technology in the realm of 5G and future networks. Its essence lies in orchestrating VNFs (Virtual Network Functions) in a specified sequence for different types of SFC requests. Efficient SFC provisioning requires fast, reliable, and automatic VNFs’ placements, especially in a network where massive amounts of SFC requests are generated having ultrareliable and low latency communication (URLLC) requirements. Although much research has been done in this area, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)-based solutions, this work presents an advanced Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)-based simulation model for SFC provisioning that illustrates a realistic environment. The proposed simulation platform can handle massive heterogeneous SFC requests having different characteristics in terms of VNFs chain, bandwidth, and latency constraints. Also, the model is flexible to apply to networks having different configurations in terms of the number of data centers (DCs), logical connections among DCs, and service demands. The simulation model components and the workflow of processing VNFs in the SFC requests are described in detail. Numerical results demonstrate that using this simulation setup and proposed algorithm, a realistic SFC provisioning can be achieved with an optimal SFC acceptance ratio while minimizing the E2E latency and resource consumption.

In this paper, we consider a UAV-assisted small-cell having heterogeneous users with different data rate and coverage demands. Specifically, we propose a novel utility-aware resource-allocation protocol to maximize the utility of UAV by allowing it to simultaneously serve the highest possible number of heterogeneous users with available energy resources. In this regard, first we derive a closed-form expression for rate-coverage probability of a user considering Rician fading to incorporate the strong line of sight (LoS) component in UAV communication. Next since this UAV utility maximization problem is non-convex and combinatorial, to obtain the global optimal resource allocation policy we propose an iterative feasibility checking method for fixed integers ranging from lower to upper bound on the number of users that can be served by UAV. To further reduce the complexity, we formulate an equivalent problem aimed at minimizing per user energy consumption, where tight analytical relaxation on rate-coverage probability constraint is used along with semi-closed expressions for joint-optimal power and time allocation. Lastly, via detailed numerical investigation, we validate our analytical claims, present insights on the impact of key system parameters, and demonstrate that 60% more users can be served using the proposed scheme as compared to relevant benchmarks.

In this paper, we consider a UAV-assisted communication system comprising of single UAV serving to heterogeneous users having different data rate and coverage demands. Specifically, we propose a novel utility-aware transmission protocol to maximize the UAV utility by allowing it to simultaneously serve the highest possible number of users with available energy resources. In this regard, first we derive a closed-form expression for rate-coverage probability of a user considering Rician fading to incorporate the strong line of sight (LoS) component in UAV communication. Next, we formulate an optimization problem P to maximize the UAV utility under energy resources and rate-coverage constraints. Since, P is non-convex and combinatorial in nature, to provide global optimal solution, an equivalent distributed problem is formulated and a joint optimization algorithm is proposed which provide closed-form solution for joint-optimal power and time allocation. With the help of numerical investigation, we validate our coverage analysis and discuss the design insights on the optimal solution. We observe that the proposed joint-optimal resource allocation scheme can yield a significant gain in the UAV utility by making it to serve 60% more users as compared to benchmark fixed allocation scheme.

To move towards low-latency wireless communication while taking care of elastic traffic, proper resource allocation is very important to provide acceptable quality of service (QoS) to all users. This work solve two optimization problems which aim at utility-proportional fairness maximization by optimizing power and bandwidth (BW) allocation among heterogeneous users having real-time and elastic traffic. Noting that both problems are non-convex, local optimal solutions in terms of BW and power are found by alternating optimization algorithm. Numerical results validate analysis, represent schedulability and average utility of real-time traffic user with respect to available resources, and compare utility fairness performance of both schemes.