CN111095979A

CN111095979A - Method, apparatus, and computer storage medium for resource allocation

Info

Publication number: CN111095979A
Application number: CN201780094891.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵昆; 林凌峰; 吕玲; 范绍帅; 田辉; 赵鹏涛; 贾杨; 李国平; 凌刚
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-09-15
Filing date: 2017-09-15
Publication date: 2020-05-01
Anticipated expiration: 2037-09-15
Also published as: CN111095979B; WO2019051798A1

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for resource allocation in a communication network. The method according to one embodiment comprises: determining an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of a communication network, a network slice being associated with a set of logical network functions; calculating a remaining resource amount corresponding to each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices based on the determined resource amount required by each network slice, wherein the remaining resource amount is a resource amount remaining in a total resource amount after allocating resources to slices other than the network slice subset among the plurality of network slices; and allocating the total resource amount to the plurality of network slices based on the remaining resource amounts corresponding to the network slice subsets of the plurality of network slices respectively. By using the embodiment of the disclosure, the resource allocation of the network slice level can be effectively obtained, and the resource utilization is improved.

Description

Method, apparatus, and computer storage medium for resource allocation

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the technical field of communication networks, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and computer storage medium for resource allocation for network slices in a communication network.

Background

The statements in this section are intended to facilitate a better understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the contents of this section should be read on this basis and should not be construed as an admission as to which pertains to the prior art or which does not.

Internet-based services bring a pleasant experience and with the rapid development of such services, the explosive growth of mobile traffic has severely impacted the bandwidth of mobile communication systems. Internet of things, automotive networks, industrial control automation, and other new services have placed stringent demands on the connectivity, latency, and reliability of mobile communication systems. In the third generation partnership project (3GPP), the concept of network slicing has been introduced to address the needs for different vertical industries. These needs of the vertical industry translate into a wide range of use cases for next generation architectures.

An important part of the idea of next generation network architecture is the support of network slicing. A network slice may be viewed as a set of end-to-end logical network functions including access network functions, core network functions, backhaul functions, etc. Network slicing is considered an effective solution for providing customized services for various types of fifth generation (5G) application scenarios. Specific details regarding this can be found in The next generation mobile network (NMGN)5G white paper, The article entitled "The novel design of 5G architecture" published by The International Mobile telecommunication-2020 (5G) Promotion Group (IMT-2020(5G) Provisioning Group) at 2016 at 6, and The 3GPP Technical report TR 22.891 version V14.0.0, entitled Technical Specification Group Services and System accessories, published at 2016 at 3; feasibility Study on New Services and market technologies Enablers; stage 1(Release 14). The entire contents of the above documents are incorporated herein by reference.

The network fabric resources may be divided into a plurality of virtual private virtual network portions, depending on the service requirements of the scenario. The network functions of different network slices may differ to provide services for different scenarios. Network slices mainly include Core Network (CN) slices and Radio Access Network (RAN) slices. The RAN working group in 3GPP has agreed on supporting differentiated handling for different network slices that the operator has pre-configured. Relevant content can be found in 3GPP documents R2-164004, entitled RAN support for network slipping. The content of this document is also incorporated herein by reference.

At present, how to support differentiated processing for different network slices is still an open problem.

Disclosure of Invention

In a communication network, RAN resources are limited and scarce, and therefore, it is desirable for a network slice to efficiently utilize the scarce RAN resources. Therefore, it is necessary to enable RAN network slices to share physical resources including radio resources, Radio Access Technologies (RATs)/Radio Interface Types (RITS), RAN architecture. Different network slices may include the same functionality and share resources in the RAN, in this way resources may be allocated rationally to serve each network slice in the RAN. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a solution for allocating resources to network slices in a communication network is provided.

In a first aspect of the disclosure, a method in a communication network is provided. The method includes determining an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of a communication network, a network slice being associated with a set of logical network functions; calculating a remaining resource amount corresponding to each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices based on the determined resource amount required by each network slice, wherein the remaining resource amount is a resource amount remaining in the total resource amount after resources are allocated to the slices except the network slice subset in the plurality of network slices; and allocating the total resource amount to the plurality of network slices based on the remaining resource amounts corresponding to the network slice subsets of the plurality of network slices respectively.

In some embodiments, calculating the remaining amount of resources for a subset S of network slices of the plurality of network slices may include calculating a characteristic function for the subset S of network slices, which may be expressed in terms of:

where M represents the total resource amount, j represents a natural number, c_jRepresents the amount of resources required by the jth network slice, v (S) represents the amount of resources remaining after allocating resources to network slices other than the subset S of network slices, and max represents a function taking the maximum value.

In another embodiment, allocating a total amount of resources to a plurality of network slices based on a remaining amount of resources to which each of a subset of the plurality of network slices corresponds may include: determining a resource allocation amount available for a network slice in a network slice subset based on a remaining resource amount corresponding to the network slice subset of the plurality of network slices; and allocating a total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocation. In a further embodiment, determining an amount of resource allocations available for a network slice in the subset of network slices may comprise: establishing a bankruptcy game model, wherein a plurality of network slices are modeled as creditors in the bankruptcy game, and the total resource amount is modeled as bankruptcy property in the bankruptcy game; and determining the resource allocation amount available for the network slice in the subset of network slices by using a bankruptcy game algorithm.

In yet another embodiment, determining the resource allocation amount available for a network slice in the subset of network slices may comprise: determining an amount of resource allocation available for the ith network slice by calculating a Shapril value for the ith network slice as obtained by the following equation:

wherein υ (S- { i }) represents the remaining resource amount corresponding to the network slice subset obtained after the ith network slice is removed from the network slice subset S,

is a normalization factor, and | S | represents the number of members in the subset S of network slices, N is the total set of all network slices, N is the total number of the plurality of network slices, N! Representing a factorial of n. In a further embodiment, allocating a total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocations includes: quantizing the determined resource allocation amounts to non-negative integers and making the sum of the non-negative integers equal to the total resource amount.

In some embodiments, the determined amount of resources may be a number of physical resource blocks.

In other embodiments, the determining, calculating, and assigning operations of the method may be performed at predetermined periods. In a further embodiment, the predetermined period may depend on at least one of: the effective time of the plurality of network slices, the fluctuating characteristics of the required amount of resources of the plurality of network slices, and the processing power of an apparatus in the communication network for performing the method.

In a second aspect of the disclosure, an apparatus operating in a communication network is provided. The device comprises a determining unit, a calculating unit and an allocating unit. The determining unit is configured to determine an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of the communication network, wherein a network slice is associated with a set of logical network functions; the computing unit is configured to compute a remaining resource amount corresponding to each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices based on the determined resource amount required by each network slice, wherein the remaining resource amount is a resource amount remaining in the total resource amount after resources are allocated to slices except the network slice subset in the plurality of network slices; the allocation unit is configured to allocate a total amount of resources to a plurality of network slices based on a remaining amount of resources corresponding to each of network slice subsets of the plurality of network slices.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus comprises a processor and a memory containing instructions executable by the processor whereby the apparatus is operative to perform any of the methods described in the first aspect of the disclosure.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed on one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform any of the methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

In a fifth aspect of the disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a computer program product is provided. The computer program product comprises instructions which, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform any of the methods according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that although some embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to a 5G communication network, embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to use in this scenario, but may be more broadly applied to any communication network, system, and scenario in which similar issues exist.

Drawings

The above and other aspects, features and benefits of various embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in the drawings identify the same or equivalent elements. The accompanying drawings are only for the purpose of promoting a better understanding of embodiments of the disclosure, and are not necessarily drawn to scale, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example communication network in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

2A-2B schematically illustrate a flow diagram of a method for resource allocation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows a flow diagram of another method for resource allocation in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 4 illustrates an operational diagram among modules of an apparatus for resource allocation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

fig. 5 illustrates a simplified block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, the principle and spirit of the present disclosure will be described with reference to exemplary embodiments. It is understood that all of these examples are given solely to enable those skilled in the art to better understand and further practice the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment, can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. For clarity, some features of the actual implementation described in this specification may be omitted.

References in the specification to "one embodiment," "an example embodiment," etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. The term "and/or" as used herein includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises," comprising, "" has, "" having, "" includes, "" including, "" has, "" having, "" contains, "" containing, "" contains, "" contain a mixture of one or more other features, elements, components, and/or combinations thereof. The term "optional" means that the embodiment or implementation being described is not mandatory, and may be omitted in some cases.

Generally, terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs, unless explicitly defined otherwise.

As used herein, the term "communication network" refers to a network that conforms to any suitable communication standard, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE long term evolution (LTE-a), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), CDMA2000, time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-CDMA), and the like. Further, communication between devices in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable communication protocol, including but not limited to global system for mobile communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other suitable communication protocols, such as first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, 3G, 4G, 4.5G, 5G communication protocols, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) standards (such as IEEE 802.11 standards); and/or any other suitable wireless communication standard, and/or any other protocol now known or later developed in the future.

As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a device in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. Depending on the terminology and technology used, a network device may refer to a Base Station (BS), an Access Point (AP), etc.

The term "communication device" refers to any device having communication capabilities. By way of example, and not limitation, a communication device may also be referred to as a terminal device, User Equipment (UE), Subscriber Station (SS), portable subscriber station, Mobile Station (MS), or Access Terminal (AT). The communication devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, tablet computers, wearable terminals, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), portable computers, desktop computers, image capture terminals such as digital cameras, gaming terminals, music storage and playback appliances, in-vehicle wireless terminals, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, Laptop Embedded Equipment (LEE), laptop installation equipment (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), D2D devices, machine-to-machine (M2M) devices, V2X devices, and the like. In the following description, the terms "communication device," "terminal," "user equipment," and "UE" may be used interchangeably.

A schematic diagram of an example wireless communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented is shown in fig. 1. The wireless communication network 100 may include one or more network devices 101. For example, in this example, network device 101 may be embodied as a base station, e.g., a gNB. It should be understood that the network device 101 may also be embodied in other forms, such as NB, eNB, BTS, BS, or BSs, relay, etc. Network device 101 provides wireless connectivity to a plurality of communication devices 111-1, 111-2 (hereinafter collectively referred to as communication devices 111) within its coverage area. It should be understood that the arrangement in the figures is merely an example, and that the wireless communication system 100 may include more or fewer communication devices or network devices. In addition, the communication devices in the communication network 100 may be of different types and capabilities and use different services.

In conventional 4G networks, a unified communication system is employed to serve all users. The entire physical resource is allocated directly to the user according to the traffic and load. This is because the access devices in previous networks were almost entirely smart phones and there was no need for network slicing. However, in 5G or other future communication systems, there may be many kinds of access devices and their traffic demands differ significantly, which makes the conventional system model no longer applicable for at least the following reasons.

First, the one-piece solution does not only reflect the characteristics of 5G network slices, but also results in low resource utilization. Second, models with intermediaries have not been fully studied, primarily due to the difficulty in designing appropriate mechanisms. Furthermore, previous network technologies have not taken into account 5G network scenarios. For example, enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) scenarios require consideration of massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology, massive and its type of communication (mtc) require consideration of narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) technology. These technologies are key drivers of 5G networks.

For the above reasons, the concept of network slicing is proposed for different application scenarios. That is, there may be multiple network slices in the communication network 100 of fig. 1. The network functions of different network slices may differ to provide services for different scenarios. In addition, different network slices may have different performance requirements and bandwidth requirements, and thus, differentiated processing should be supported for different network slices to improve utilization efficiency of scarce RAN resources. The multiple communication devices in fig. 1 may be associated with different network slices.

Embodiments of the present disclosure propose resource allocation algorithms in a communication system that can be used for, for example, but not limited to, resource allocation in a network slicing service in a 5G network, and can allocate resources reasonably and efficiently in a variety of scenarios.

Additionally, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, a cooperative gaming algorithm may be used to solve resource allocation problems in a communication network. For example, a bankruptcy gaming model may be used to simulate multiple scenarios (e.g., eMBB, mtc, etc.) in a 5G network. Bankruptcy gaming is a special type of multi-player cooperative gaming. In the bankruptcy gaming model, the bankruptcy company has a greater total amount of debt to each creditor than the bankruptcy property owned by the company. To distribute the remaining properties of the bankruptcy company, the creditor operates by forming a federation to obtain the maximum benefit of the federation, and then members within the federation will distribute the benefit fairly. In this way, creditors are free to form leagues in order to obtain maximum benefit for a particular situation in different circumstances. From this point of view, the bankruptcy gaming model has a strong flexibility and from the perspective of the creditor it can produce optimal results according to different needs.

In a 5G network, resources (e.g., Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs), codewords, etc.) owned by a Base Station (BS) are limited and scarce. Thus, in some embodiments, it may be reasonable to assume that the total amount of resources required for all network slices is always not less than the total amount of resources owned by the BS. This is similar to the situation in the bankruptcy game. Accordingly, the inventors of the present disclosure propose to model the resource allocation of network slices in a communication network as property allocations in bankruptcy gambling.

In 1953, l.s. salpril (sharey) proposed a mathematical approach to solve the distribution problem in bankruptcy gambling using the concepts of feature functions and salpril values. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the mathematical model may be used to solve resource allocation problems in a communication network and design appropriate parameters for a scenario of the communication network to obtain reasonable resource allocation results at a network slice level.

By way of example, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in some sections below in connection with a bankruptcy gaming model. In the description of these embodiments, the terms "bankruptcy", "player (creditor)", "gaming", etc. are no longer intended in their original model. Rather, these terms will be used to refer to corresponding technical features. For example, a bankruptcy property in a "bankruptcy" refers herein to the total resources in the communication network, an asset allocation in a "bankruptcy" refers herein to a resource allocation in the communication network, a player in a "bankruptcy" is used to refer to a network slice in the communication network, and a coalition of players is used to refer to a subset of network slices made up of one or more network slices in the communication network.

Thus, the inventors of the present disclosure propose to model base stations and network slices associated with different scenarios as bankruptcy companies and players (creditors) in bankruptcy gaming, respectively. Finally, based on the separated reasonable demands, the bankruptcy game model can enable the network slices (modeled as creditors) to obtain stable resource allocation, and each network slice is satisfied with the allocation relation. That is, the bankruptcy gaming model may be utilized in some embodiments to ensure a relatively fair allocation of resources among network slices. A method 200 for resource allocation in a communication network according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below in conjunction with fig. 2A-2B. The communication network may be, for example, communication network 100 of fig. 1, and the method may be implemented by, for example, network device 101 of fig. 1. However, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. In some embodiments, method 200 may also be implemented by a plurality of network elements distributed in a network. For ease of discussion, method 200 will be described below with reference to network device 101 and network environment 100 depicted in fig. 1.

As shown in fig. 2A, at block 210, network device 101 determines an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of communication network 100. In one embodiment, the communication network 100 may be a 5G network and include therein a plurality of network slices corresponding to different application scenarios (e.g., eMBB, mtc). Each network slice is associated with a set of logical network functions. In addition, each network slice may have typical services, and different services may have relatively differentiated rate requirements. Thus, in some embodiments, the total rate required for a network slice may be obtained based on the rate requirement for the service and the number of users in the network slice to determine the amount of resources required for the network slice. For example, for simplicity, fading issues may not be considered, so that the number of PRBs required for a network slice may be roughly estimated based on the rate support that a single PRB can provide. It should be understood that, in some embodiments, the amount of resources required for each of the plurality of network slices may also be determined based on other factors (e.g., QoS requirements, latency requirements, etc.) instead or in addition.

At block 220, network device 101 calculates a remaining amount of resources for each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resources required for each network slice. The remaining resource amount corresponding to each network slice subset is the remaining resource amount in the total resource amount after resources are allocated to the network slices except the network slice subset in the plurality of network slices. Thus, the amount of resources remaining for each network slice subset may be indicative of the amount of resources available for that network slice subset.

In one embodiment, considering N network slices for 1.. and N, the total set of network slices can be represented as N ═ 1, …, N, and the subset of network slices has 2ⁿAnd (4) respectively. In this case, at block 220, for 2ⁿEach network slice subset of the subsets calculates its corresponding amount of remaining resources.

In one embodiment, the remaining resource amount corresponding to a network slice subset S may be calculated by calculating a feature function for the network slice subset S. As an example, the characteristic functional form may be expressed as:

where M denotes the total amount of resources, e.g. the total number of PRBs, j denotes a natural number,

representing network slices j, c outside the subset S of network slices_jThe result v (S) represents the remaining resource amount after allocating resources to the network slices other than the network slice subset S, and max represents a function of taking the maximum value. The feature functions for other network slice subsets may be computed in the same manner.

At block 230, network device 101 allocates a total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the remaining amount of resources to which each of the network slice subsets of the plurality of network slices corresponds.

In one embodiment, at block 230, an amount of resource allocation available for a network slice in the subset S of network slices may be determined based on an amount of remaining resources corresponding to the subset S of network slices, and the total amount of resources may be allocated to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocation. Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to determining the amount of resource allocation available for network slices in the subset S of network slices in any particular manner.

By way of example and not limitation, in some embodiments, network device 101 may determine the resource allocation amount based on a cooperative gaming algorithm (e.g., a bankruptcy gaming algorithm).

An example implementation of block 230 is shown in fig. 2B. In this example, at block 231, network device 101 builds a bankruptcy game model for resource allocation, where the plurality of network slices are modeled as creditors in the bankruptcy game and the total amount of resources are modeled as bankruptcy assets in the bankruptcy game. Thus, allocating resources to the network slice translates into allocation of bankruptcy assets among creditors. With respect to the dispensing, there is a bankruptcy gaming algorithm.

At block 232, the network device 101 determines an amount of resource allocation available for network slices in the subset of network slices using a bankruptcy gaming algorithm; and at block 233, a total amount of resources is allocated to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocations.

In some embodiments, the resource allocation amount of the network slice i may be determined by calculating a salpril value of an ith network slice (also referred to as network slice i) of the plurality of network slices. For example, the value of salpril for the ith network slice can be obtained by the following equation (2):

v (S) represents the residual resource amount corresponding to the network slice subset S, and v (S- { i }) represents the residual resource amount corresponding to the network slice subset obtained after the network slice i is removed from the network slice subset S. Therefore, υ (S) - υ (S- { i }) may represent the contribution of the network slice i to the subset of network slices. In addition, the first and second substrates are,

to normalize the factor, where | S | represents the number of members in a subset S of network slices, N is the total set of all network slices, N is the total number of the plurality of network slices, N! Representing a factorial of n.

An example of resource allocation using the method 200 in a 5G network is described below for purposes of example and not limitation. It should be understood, however, that embodiments of the present disclosure may also be used with any other communication network where similar problems exist.

In this example, consider 3 network slices corresponding to three typical application scenarios in a 5G network to build a bankruptcy gaming model. Each network slice corresponds to a creditor in the bankruptcy gaming model. By utilizing a bankruptcy game algorithm, network slices form alliances to obtain better debt compensation, namely resource allocation. Assuming that the total number of PRBs owned by the BS (modeled as a bankruptcy company in the bankruptcy game) is represented as a positive integer M, the total set of considered network slices is represented as N ═ {1, …, N }. The federation of network slices can be represented as S, S being a subset of N, i.e.

When the total number of network slices is n, the total number is 2ⁿPossible federation of (1). S may be represented by a probability of 1/2ⁿRepresenting all possible federations.

Based on the above definitions, a characteristic function v (S) for each federation (i.e., network slice subset) S, which represents the amount of resources remaining after allocating resources to network slices other than the network slice subset S, may be obtained according to equation (1) above, and thus may indicate the resources available by the network slice subset S.

In one example embodiment, a value for the salpril for each member i in each coalition S may be calculated based on the feature function calculated for each member. In the bankruptcy gaming model, this value of salapril represents the average compensation available to members in the league, reflecting the contribution of league members to the league. In resource allocation, this salpril value is used to represent the average contribution of each network slice to a subset of network slices, which indicates the amount of resources, e.g., the number of PRBs, that each network slice should be allocated. The value of salpril for the network slice i may be calculated, for example, as shown in equation (2) above.

In resource allocation, the amount of resources for each network slice may be fairly assigned according to the average contribution of each network slice. This is equivalent to fairly assigning the property for each member based on each member's contribution to the league in the bankruptcy game.

The process of determining resource allocation for a network slice according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is described below in conjunction with a more specific example.

In this example, it is assumed that there are 5 network slices participating in resource allocation, i.e., n is 5, and the 5 network slices may be denoted as a, B, C, D, E, respectively. Thus, taking network slice a as an example, there are 16 network slice subsets containing the network slice a, or 16 federations containing member a, and they can be represented as: { A }, { A, B }, { A, C }, { A, D }, { A, E }, { A, B, C }, { A, B, D }, { A, B, E }, { A, C, D }, { A, C, E }, { A, D, E }, { A, B, C, D }, { A, B, C, E }, { A, B, D, E }, { A, B, C, D, E }, and { A, D, E }. The 16 federations may be divided into 5 parts according to the number of members. Taking as an example a federation { A, B, C }, { A, B, D }, { A, B, E }, { A, C, D }, { A, C, E }, { A, D, E }, with three members, in this case the normalization factor may be calculated as

Wherein

The representation federation is divided into 5 parts,

the number of leagues representing this part is 6. The contribution of member a to the part can be expressed as:

in some embodiments, network device 101, when allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocation, may first quantize the determined amount of resource allocation to a non-negative integer and make the sum of the quantized non-negative integers for the plurality of network slices equal to the total amount of resources. For example, the contribution of member a to all possible leagues in the above example may be quantified to obtain a reward for member a in the bankruptcy game, i.e., the amount of resources that network slice a is allocated in the resource allocation.

As an example, in the case where the resource amount is an integer, for example, the resource amount is the number of PRBs, the value of the salpril calculated by equation (2) may be rounded up or down to obtain a quantized value. In the case where the result of equation (2) is not a non-negative integer, the quantization operation may be performed.

Non-negative integer vectors may be utilized

Represents the number of resources obtained by each network slice through the resource allocation method proposed by the embodiment of the present disclosure, wherein

Indicating the number of resources acquired by the ith network slice. In the case of calculating resource allocation by expression (2), elements of the vector X satisfy the following expressions (4) to (6):

integer (e.g., quantized, or rounded) to obtain a non-negative integer

Although in some embodiments, the amount of resources may represent the number of PRBs, it should be understood that embodiments of the present disclosure are not so limited. In some embodiments, the resource amount may also represent, for example, a number of time resources, or a number of code resources, etc.

In some embodiments, the resource allocation problem for network slices may be solved at layer 2 or layer 3(L2/L3) of a communication network (e.g., communication network 100 of fig. 1). For example, the method of FIGS. 2A-2B may be implemented at L2/L3 of network device 101.

Alternatively or additionally, in some embodiments, as shown in FIG. 2A, the determining, calculating, and allocating operations in

blocks

210 and 230 may be performed at a predetermined period T. For example, the validity time period T of a network slice may be defined. At the end of period T, the resource allocation for the network slice may be re-performed. The number of multiple network slices in the communication network may be different in each execution. Thus, when utilizing the bankruptcy gaming algorithm, the bankruptcy gaming model established in the new resource allocation cycle will also change (e.g., the number of players (creditors) changes).

This periodic operation allows the use of semi-dynamic programming algorithms (e.g., in conjunction with bankruptcy gaming models) to solve resource allocation problems. The semi-dynamic programming algorithm can reflect the characteristic requirements of different types of users visually. By way of example and not limitation, the predetermined period T may depend on at least one of a fluctuation characteristic of an amount of resources required for a plurality of network slices, a processing capability of an apparatus performing the resource allocation method, and an effective time of a network slice.

An example method 300 of periodically performing resource allocation according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in fig. 3. The method 300 may be implemented, for example and without limitation, by the network device 101 of fig. 1. For ease of discussion, method 300 will be described below with reference to network device 101.

As shown in fig. 3, at block 310, the network device 101 builds a bankruptcy gaming model, including modeling the total amount of resources and the network slices as bankruptcy assets and players, respectively. At block 320, the network device 101 obtains the number Ci of PRBs required for each network slice i. At block 330, federations (i.e., subsets of network slices) are formed using the network slices to obtain better allocations. At block 340, feature function values for all possible federations are obtained, e.g., based on equation (1). At block 350, a value for salpril for a member in the federation (i.e., a network slice) is determined, e.g., based on equation (2), and resource allocation for the network slice is performed based thereon. At block 360, the network device determines whether an update period T has been reached, and upon reaching the period T, initiates a new round of resource allocation, i.e., returns to block 310.

After obtaining the resource allocation at the network slice level using an embodiment of the present disclosure (e.g., method 200 or 300), the resource allocation within the network slice may be further performed. The resource allocation within the network slice may be performed, for example, but not limited to, using any known method. For example, Round Robin (RR) allocation, Proportional Fair (PF) allocation, etc. scheduling policies may be used for resource allocation within a network slice.

An aspect of the present disclosure also provides an apparatus for allocating resources in a communication network. The apparatus may be, for example, the network device 101 shown in fig. 1. In one embodiment, the network device 101 comprises a determination unit, a calculation unit and an allocation unit. The determination unit is configured to determine an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of the communication network 100. The computing unit is configured to compute, based on the determined amount of resources required for each network slice, a remaining amount of resources corresponding to each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices, the remaining amount of resources being an amount of resources remaining in a total amount of resources after allocating resources to slices other than the network slice subset of the plurality of network slices. The allocation unit is configured to allocate a total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on a remaining amount of resources corresponding to each of network slice subsets of the plurality of network slices.

In one embodiment, the determining unit, the calculating unit and the allocating unit of the network device 101 may perform the operations of the

blocks

210 and 230 in fig. 2A, respectively, or may perform the operations of the

blocks

310 and 320, 330 and 340 and 350 in fig. 3, respectively. Thus, the operations described above in connection with

methods

200 and 300 are equally applicable here and are not described in detail.

In fig. 4, an example operational diagram between the determining unit 410, the calculating unit 420 and the allocating unit 430 of the network device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. As shown in fig. 4, the determining unit 410 may include sub-units 411 and 413 respectively for determining the amount of resources required by different network slices. For example, each of the sub-units 411-413 may estimate the resource amount requirement Ci based on the number Ni of users associated with the network slice i and the rate Vi of the corresponding typical service. The resource quantity requirement Ci is reported (401, 402, 403) to a computing unit 420 for computing a feature function v (S) of the federation S, a value of salpril for a network slice i in the federation S

And a final resource allocation result xi obtained by the rounding operation. The calculation unit 420 reports 404 the final resource allocation result xi to the allocation unit 430 to perform

resource allocation

407 and 405.

Fig. 5 shows a simplified block diagram of an apparatus 500 for resource allocation according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The device may be implemented in/as a network device (e.g., network device 101 shown in fig. 1).

The device 500 may include one or more processors 510 (such as a data processor) and one or more memories 520 coupled to the processors 510. The device 500 may also include one or more transmitter/receivers 540 coupled to the processor 510. The memory 520 may be a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium and it may store a program or computer program product 530. The computer program (product) 530 may include instructions that, when executed on the associated processor 510, enable the apparatus 500 to operate in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure (e.g., perform the methods 200 or 300). The combination of one or more processors 510 and one or more memories 520 may form a processing component 550 suitable for implementing various embodiments of the disclosure.

Various embodiments of the disclosure may be implemented by a computer program or computer program product executable by processor 510, software, firmware, hardware, or combinations thereof.

The memory 520 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as semiconductor-based memory terminal devices, magnetic memory terminal devices and systems, optical memory terminal devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples.

The processor 510 may be of any type suitable to the local technical environment, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and processors based on a multi-core processor architecture, as non-limiting examples.

Although some of the above description has been made in the context of the communication network shown in fig. 1, this should not be construed as limiting the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. The principles and concepts of the present disclosure may be more generally applicable to other scenarios.

Furthermore, the present disclosure may also provide a computer-readable storage medium, such as a memory containing a computer program or computer program product as described above, including a machine-readable medium and a machine-readable transmission medium. The machine-readable medium may also be referred to as a computer-readable medium and may include a machine-readable storage medium, such as a magnetic disk, magnetic tape, optical disk, phase change memory, or electronic memory terminal device, such as Random Access Memory (RAM), Read Only Memory (ROM), flash memory device, CD-ROM, DVD, Blu-ray disk, etc. A machine-readable transmission medium may also be referred to as a carrier and may include, for example, electrical, optical, radio, acoustic, or other form of propagated signals, such as carrier waves, infrared signals, etc.

The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means, so that an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment includes not only prior art means but also means for implementing one or more functions of a corresponding apparatus described with an embodiment, and it may include separate means for each separate function or means configured to perform two or more functions. For example, these techniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more devices), firmware (one or more devices), software (one or more modules), or a combination thereof. For firmware or software, implementation can be through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein.

Example embodiments herein are described above with reference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods and apparatus. It should be understood that each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implemented by various means including hardware, software, firmware, and combinations thereof. For example, in one embodiment, each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by a computer program or computer program product comprising computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, although several specific implementation details are included in the above discussion, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the subject matter described herein, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Furthermore, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of a subcombination.

It is obvious to a person skilled in the art that with the advancement of technology, the inventive concept may be implemented in various ways. The above-described embodiments are given for the purpose of illustration and not limitation of the present disclosure, and it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as readily understood by those skilled in the art. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. The scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

A method implemented in a communication network, comprising:

determining an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of the communication network, a network slice being associated with a set of logical network functions;

calculating a remaining resource amount corresponding to each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices based on the determined resource amount required by each network slice, wherein the remaining resource amount is a resource amount remaining in a total resource amount after allocating resources to slices other than the network slice subset among the plurality of network slices; and

allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the remaining amount of resources for each of a subset of network slices of the plurality of network slices.
The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the amount of remaining resources for a subset S of network slices of the plurality of network slices comprises calculating a feature function for the subset S of network slices, the feature function being of the form:

wherein M represents the total resource amount, j represents a natural number, c_jRepresents the amount of resources required by the jth network slice, v (S) represents the amount of resources remaining after allocating resources to network slices other than the subset S of network slices, and max represents a function taking the maximum value.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the amount of remaining resources to which each of a subset of network slices of the plurality of network slices corresponds comprises:

determining resource allocation amounts available for network slices in a subset of the plurality of network slices based on the remaining resource amounts corresponding to the subset of network slices; and

allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocations.
The method of claim 3, wherein determining an amount of resource allocation available for a network slice in the subset of network slices comprises:

establishing a bankruptcy game model, wherein the plurality of network slices are modeled as creditors in the bankruptcy game, and the total resource amount is modeled as bankruptcy property in the bankruptcy game; and

determining an amount of resource allocation available for a network slice in the subset of network slices using a bankruptcy gaming algorithm.
The method of claim 4, wherein determining the amount of resource allocation available for a network slice in the subset of network slices comprises:

determining the resource allocation amount available for an ith network slice by calculating the following equation to obtain a Shapril value for the ith network slice:

wherein υ (S- { i }) represents the remaining resource amount corresponding to the network slice subset obtained after the ith network slice is removed from the network slice subset S,
is a normalization factor, and | S | represents the number of members in the subset S of network slices, N is the total set of all network slices, N is the total number of the plurality of network slices, N! Representing a factorial of n.
The method of claim 5, wherein allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocations comprises:

quantizing the determined resource allocation amounts to non-negative integers and making the sum of the non-negative integers equal to the total resource amount.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the determined amount of resources is a number of physical resource blocks.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said determining, said calculating and said assigning are performed with a predetermined periodicity.
The method of claim 8, wherein the predetermined period depends on at least one of:

a time of validity of the plurality of network slices;

a fluctuating characteristic of a required amount of resources of the plurality of network slices, an

Processing capabilities of an apparatus in the communication network for performing the method.
An apparatus in a communications network, comprising a processor and a memory, the memory containing instructions executable by the processor whereby the apparatus is operative to:

determining an amount of resources required for each of a plurality of network slices of the communication network, a network slice being associated with a set of logical network functions;

calculating a remaining resource amount corresponding to each network slice subset of the plurality of network slices based on the determined resource amount required by each network slice, wherein the remaining resource amount is a resource amount remaining in a total resource amount after allocating resources to slices other than the network slice subset among the plurality of network slices; and

allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the remaining amount of resources for each of a subset of network slices of the plurality of network slices.
The device of claim 10, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor whereby the device is further operative to compute the amount of remaining resources of a subset S of network slices of the plurality of network slices by computing a feature function for the subset S of network slices, the feature function being of the form:

wherein M represents the total resource amount, j represents a natural number, c_jRepresents the amount of resources required by the jth network slice, v (S) represents the amount of resources remaining after allocating resources to network slices other than the subset S of network slices, and max represents a function taking the maximum value.
The apparatus of claim 10 or 11, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor, whereby the apparatus is further operative to allocate the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices by:

determining resource allocation amounts available for network slices in a subset of the plurality of network slices based on the remaining resource amounts corresponding to the subset of network slices; and

allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices based on the determined amount of resource allocations.
The device of claim 12, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor whereby the device is further operative to determine an amount of resource allocation available for a network slice in the subset of network slices by:

establishing a bankruptcy game model, wherein the plurality of network slices are modeled as creditors in the bankruptcy game, and the total resource amount is modeled as bankruptcy property in the bankruptcy game; and

determining an amount of resource allocation available for a network slice in the subset of network slices using a bankruptcy gaming algorithm.
The device of claim 13, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor whereby the device is further operative to:

determining the resource allocation amount available for an ith network slice by calculating the following equation to obtain a Shapril value for the ith network slice:

wherein υ (S- { i }) represents the remaining resource amount corresponding to the network slice subset obtained after the ith network slice is removed from the network slice subset S,
is a normalization factor, and | S | represents the number of members in the subset S of network slices, N is the total set of all network slices, N is the total number of the plurality of network slices, N! Representing a factorial of n.
The device of claim 14, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor whereby the device is further operative to:

allocating the total amount of resources to the plurality of network slices by quantizing the determined amount of resource allocation to non-negative integers and making the sum of the non-negative integers equal to the total amount of resources.
The apparatus according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the determined amount of resources is a number of physical resource blocks.
The apparatus of claim 10 or 11, wherein the memory contains instructions executable by the processor whereby the apparatus is further operative to perform the determining, the calculating and the allocating in predetermined cycles.
The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the predetermined period depends on at least one of:

a time of validity of the plurality of network slices;

a fluctuating characteristic of a required amount of resources of the plurality of network slices, an

Processing capabilities of an apparatus in the communication network for performing the method.
A computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed on at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.