Toward Tailored Resource Allocation of Slices in 6G Networks With Softwarization and Virtualization

Compared with 5G networks, 6G networks are guaranteed to provide various tailored end-to-end network services and emerging cloud-edge applications. Network slicing (NS) is regarded as the key enabler of 6G networks. Softwarization and virtualization technologies, such as software-defined networking and network function virtualization, are accelerating the way toward NS of 6G networks. The resource allocation issue in 6G NS is very crucial, worthy more research attention. In this article, we propose one efficient resource allocation algorithm, labeled as <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> , so as to realize the tailored slices in 6G. When receiving one slice request, our <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> will identify the slice resource type in the first place. Then, our <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> will select its most suitable subalgorithm to do the resource allocation and slicing deployment. Each type of slice corresponds to its specific resource allocation subalgorithm, inserted in the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> algorithm. In addition, each subalgorithm in <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> is guaranteed to run within polynomial time. Thus, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> having the potential to be promoted to real networking application. To highlight the merits of <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> , we do the comprehensive simulation. Simulation results vividly reveal that our <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TailoredSlice-6G</i> outperforms the selected heuristics that are representative in the literature.