SliceOps: Explainable MLOps for streamlined automation-native 6G networks

Sixth-generation (6G) network slicing is the backbone of future communications systems. It inaugurates the era of extreme ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (xURLLC) and pervades the digitalization of the various vertical immersive use cases. Since 6G inherently underpins artificial intell...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Rezazadeh, Farhad, Chergui, Hatim, Alonso Zárate, Luis Gonzaga|||0000-0002-6608-0862, Verikoukis, Christos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/405954
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/405954
https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MWC.007.2300144
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Machine learning
Resource allocation
Mobile communication systems
Artificial intelligence
Data models
6G mobile communication
Training
Network slicing
Monitoring
Load modeling
Aprenentatge automàtic
Assignació de recursos
Comunicacions mòbils, Sistemes de
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Comunicacions mòbils
Descripción
Sumario:Sixth-generation (6G) network slicing is the backbone of future communications systems. It inaugurates the era of extreme ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (xURLLC) and pervades the digitalization of the various vertical immersive use cases. Since 6G inherently underpins artificial intelligence (AI), we propose a systematic and standalone slice termed SliceOps that is natively embedded in the 6G architecture, which gathers and manages the whole AI lifecycle through monitoring, re-training, and deploying the machine learning (ML) models as a service for the 6G slices. By leveraging machine learning operations (MLOps) in conjunction with eXplainable AI (XAI), SliceOps strives to cope with the opaqueness of black-box AI using explanation-guided reinforcement learning (XRL) to fulfill transparency, trustworthi- ness, and interpretability in the network slicing ecosystem. This article starts by elaborating on the architectural and algorithmic aspects of SliceOps. Then, the deployed cloud-native SliceOps working is exemplified via a latency-aware resource allocation problem. The deep RL (DRL)-based SliceOps agents within slices provide AI services aiming to allocate optimal radio resources and impede service quality degradation. Simulation results demon- strate the effectiveness of SliceOps-driven slicing. The article dis- cusses afterward the SliceOps challenges and limitations. Finally, the key open research directions corresponding to the proposed approach are identified.