Collaborative Research: NeTS: JUNO3: End-to-end network slicing and orchestration in future programmable converged wireless-optical networks

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Beyond 5G/6G and next-generation core networks promise a wide range of new applications and industrial verticals such as digital enterprise, Industry 4.0, and smart cities. Revolutionary technological breakthroughs in all domains, including access fronthaul, edge clouds, and core networks, are necessary to realize this unprecedented opportunity through timely end-to-end performance guarantees. Several challenges must be overcome in order to achieve this. Firstly, emerging applications often demand high availability and reliability for mission-critical purposes. Secondly, edge-to-edge traffic flows gradually dominate conventional cloud-to-user flows, transforming traffic patterns and profiles. Thirdly, the explosive growth of the Internet and core network traffic due to cloud services and the “new normal” following the COVID-19 pandemic propel new programmable broadband data delivery. Lastly, seamless end-to-end networking and management are necessary to support data-intensive, latency-sensitive applications such as metaverse, digital twins, and remote surgery. This project seeks to address these challenges. The objective of this joint US-Japan project is to develop critical enablers to realize the full spectrum of beyond 5G/6G applications. The specific aims are to: a) Design resilient fronthaul architectures based on novel power-over-fiber technology to provide wireless access survivability; b(Design automatic edge cloud management and service chain deployment by leveraging machine learning techniques and Markov decision processes; c)Design multi-petabit optical core networks and efficient access-edge-core orchestration and slicing for stringent service-level agreements; d) Prototype a wireless-optical network testbed and evaluate end-to-end harmonization performance. This project brings unique research synergy of US and Japanese researchers and will lay the theoretical, algorithmic, and experimental foundation of end-to-end network slicing and orchestration to enable future programmable converged wireless-optical networks. The research outcomes will have overarching and transformative broader impacts on technology and society through the harmonization of optical networking, edge, and wireless domains. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.