A Graph Convolutional Network-Based Fine-Grained Low-Latency Service Slicing Algorithm for 6G Networks

The future 6G (sixth-generation) mobile communication technology is required to support advanced network services capabilities such as holographic communication, autonomous driving, and the industrial internet, which demand higher data rates, lower latency, and greater reliability. Furthermore, future service classifications will become more fine-grained. To meet the requirements of these low-latency services with varying granularities, this work investigates fine-grained network slicing for low-latency services in 6G networks. A fine-grained network slicing algorithm for low-latency services in 6G based on GCNs (graph convolutional networks) is proposed. The goal is to minimize the end-to-end delay of network slicing while meeting the constraints of computational resources, communication resources, and the deployment of SFCs (service function chains). This algorithm focuses on the construction and deployment of network slices. First, due to the complexity and diversity of 6G networks, DAGs (Directed Acyclic Graphs) are used to represent network service requests. Then, based on the depth-first search algorithm, three types of SFCs of latency-type network slices are constructed according to the available computing and communication resources. Finally, the GCN-based low-latency service fine-grained network slicing algorithm is used to deploy SFCs. The simulation results show that the latency performance of the proposed algorithm outperforms that of the Double DQN and DQN algorithms across various scenarios, including changes in the number of underlying network nodes and variations in service sizes.