Diverse and Differentiated QoS Provisioning for 6G Communications via Demand-Aware Prioritization and DEI-Based Resource Allocation

To address the challenges of device diversity and service heterogeneity in human and machine-type communications, a predominant approach in future networks is to serve users by differentiated quality-of-service (QoS) categories. However, due to exacerbated conflicts among concurrent services for constrained resources, 6G networks call for more inclusive and equitable QoS provisioning strategies. This paper proposes a novel service provisioning framework empowered by demand-aware prioritization mechanism and diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI)-based resource allocation. Particularly, the proposed scheme discerns heterogeneous users’ resource needs by customized utility models according to specific service categories and requirements. By considering demand-aware priorities for individual users, we propose a DEI-based metric evaluated by the weighted mean-variance tradeoff of network-wide user utilities. Our overall objective is to maximize the long-term DEI value in multi-dimensional multiple-access (MDMA) network. To address this NP-hard problem, we design an alternate optimization framework wherein the subchannel and power allocation are solved by matching theory and sequential quadratic programming (SQP) algorithm. Simulations verify the proposed scheme can inclusively support all users of differentiated service categories with higher average utility and smaller inter-user disparity. Furthermore, the DEI method can adaptively accommodate and prioritize diverse QoS demands based on individualized service requirements and dynamic resource conditions.