A Novel QoS Guaranteed Joint Resource Allocation Framework for 5G NR with Supplementary Uplink Transmission

Abstract

In 5G scenarios, the dynamic resource allocation of network slicing is crucial for quality-of-service (QoS) guaranteed under fluctuating traffic demands in rapidly changing communication environments. In this paper, we propose a novel QoS guaranteed joint resource allocation framework for NR with supplementary uplink (SUL) called QGJRA-SUL, where three parameters of SUL admission, TDD pattern, and band slicing scheme are jointly optimized. The framework is driven by a well-designed deep reinforcement learning agent. By combining the activation functions tanh and softmax, the agent can jointly optimize three parameters at the same time. Under the original problem of QoS satisfaction rate maximization, we introduce the load unbalance degree of slices into the reward function as a penalty term. The simulation results show that the framework can guarantee the QoS satisfaction rate well and balance the load of slices. QGJRA-SUL can accommodate 15% more user equipments (UEs) with the same QoS satisfaction rate than that of a traditional single-band solution without SUL, and achieve a 73% increase in the performance of load balancing than that without a load balancing mechanism near the full load.