Resource Reservation in Sliced Networks: An Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) Approach

Abstract

The growing complexity of wireless networks has sparked an upsurge in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the telecommunication industry in recent years. In network slicing, a key component of 5G that enables network operators to lease their resources to third-party tenants, AI models may be employed in complex tasks, such as short-term resource reservation (STRR). When AI is used to make complex resource management decisions with financial and service quality implications, it is important that these decisions be understood by a human-in-the-loop. In this paper, we apply state-of-the art techniques from the field of Explainable AI (XAI) to the problem of STRR. Using real-world data to develop an AI model for STRR, we demonstrate how our XAI methodology can be used to explain the real-time decisions of the model, to reveal trends about the model’s general behaviour, as well as aid in the diagnosis of potential faults during the model’s development. In addition, we quantitatively validate the faithfulness of the explanations across an extensive range of XAI metrics to ensure they remain trustworthy and actionable.

Explainable AI for 6G Use Cases: Technical Aspects and Research Challenges

“…As these decisions involve complex management of resources that have financial and service quality, making the humanin-the-loop understand the rationale behind these decisions is of paramount importance. Integrating XAI algorithms into 6G improves the credibility and accountability of resource allocation in NS [142].…”