5GSliceStream-5G New Radio-enabled Advanced MPEG-DASH Adaptive Streaming Solution with Active RAN Slicing

The emergence of 5G networks signifies a shift towards a range of unique and high-demand network services, which prioritize conflicting Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for diverse applications such as video streaming, Virtual Reality (VR), and gaming services. Network slicing in 5G architecture is crucial in addressing these diverse needs using a common physical infrastructure. The integration of 5G New Radio (NR) introduces promising features such as Bandwidth Parts (BWPs), facilitating flexible resource configuration for each User Equipment (UE) within dedicated bandwidth subsets. However, as network slicing continues to mature, the effective implementation and management of Radio Access Network (RAN) slices for these multifaceted services remains a considerable hindrance. This paper introduces an innovative 5G Slice Streaming solution (5GSS) specifically tailored to elevate content streaming performance and address the unique requirements of various slices of different content types e.g. adaptive video (DASH), VR, and gaming. With a primary focus on video streaming and considering it as one of the pivotal slices, the proposed 5GSS solution simultaneously considers multiple parameters such as buffer impact factor, download impact factor, throughput proximity, and number of quality switches, and applies a Pareto optimization to identify and perform the optimal bitrate selection in a 5G RAN slicing environment. The comprehensive NS3 experimental setup accommodates 5G NR and DASH modules. The experimental results validate the superior performance of the proposed solution, demonstrating noticeable improvements in visual quality, quality smoothness, throughput efficiency and fairness, compared to existing solutions.