A Novel SDN/NFV-Based Network Slicing Framework for 6G Networks: Design, Automation, and Resource Management

The future 6G network system is envisioned as a flexible, multi-service platform designed to support a wide range of applications with varying requirements. A key enabler of this vision is Network Slicing (NSL), which allows the creation of multiple virtual networks over a shared physical infrastructure. However, deploying NSL with full flexibility and automation presents significant challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel NSL creation system based on Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV). The system is divided into three domains: design, execution, and infrastructure. The design domain defines network services, the execution domain manages and allocates resources to run them, and the infrastructure domain handles the underlying network resources for seamless deployment. Together, these components enable tenants to easily create and manage NSL networks through a user-friendly web interface. In our evaluation, we assess the performance of the design and execution domains of the NSL creation system and compare it with related approaches. The evaluation results show that the NSL creation system outperforms related approaches in terms of response time, scalability, and resource efficiency. The design domain demonstrates faster response times than OpenMANO, and the execution domain achieves a higher Transactions Per Second (TPS) and transfer rate compared to a centralized system. The PSO-based placement algorithm also performs better in minimizing physical node and link costs, maintaining an acceptance rate between 92.5% and 97.5%, which highlights its efficiency in resource-constrained environments.