Isolation-based Sub-Slices for Throughput Optimization in 5G Radio Access Network

In 5G network slicing, ensuring strict isolation and guaranteeing service throughput are essential requirements. Isolation in radio access network (RAN) enables abstraction of sharing of system resources between slices. These system resources (radio resources like physical resource blocks (PRBs)) are configured by considering the overall service level assurances. However, the above configuration fails to consider the granular performance variation of users (like, user throughput) within the service level capabilities during varying user profiles and channel characteristics. For this purpose, to optimally allocate system resources, there is a need for the logical partitioning of network slice into sub-slices. In this paper, for the first time, we have proposed an Isolation-based Sub-Slices for Throughput Optimization (ISTO) algorithm during varying user profiles and channel characteristics. ISTO computes the optimum user service throughput and maximum users that can be accommodated per sub-slice. Extensive simulation results derived from closed form analytical models reveal that ISTO achieves minimum of 2.2 times performance improvement with respect to, average cell throughput and average signal to noise ratio compared to existing latest approaches.