Latency-Sensitive 5G RAN Slicing for Industry 4.0

2026-07-01

AI Summary

This work proposes a 5G radio access network (RAN) slicing scheme tailored for low-latency-sensitive services to address the heterogeneous requirements of diverse applications in Industrial 4.0 and similar scenarios, which demand varying combinations of data rates and stringent latency constraints—including deterministic periodic, aperiodic, and non-deterministic traffic. The proposed approach uniquely integrates the optimization of slice architecture and wireless resource allocation across multiple classes of latency-sensitive traffic, enabling customized quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees over a shared physical infrastructure. Leveraging network virtualization and softwarization, the scheme employs dynamic resource partitioning, slice-specific configuration, and QoS-driven scheduling policies to effectively meet the demanding and diverse latency and throughput requirements in representative industrial environments, demonstrating strong potential for extension to other latency-critical vertical industries.

Abstract

Network slicing is a novel 5G paradigm that exploits the virtualization and softwarization of networks to create different logical network instances over a common network infrastructure. Each instance is tailored for specific Quality of Service (QoS) profiles so that network slicing can simultaneously support several services with diverse requirements. Network slicing can be applied at the Core Network or at the Radio Access Network (RAN). RAN slicing is particularly relevant to support latency-sensitive or timecritical applications since the RAN accounts for a significant part of the end-to-end transmission latency. In this context, this study proposes a novel latency-sensitive 5G RAN slicing solution. The proposal includes schemes to design slices and partition (or allocate) radio resources among slices. These schemes are designed with the objective to satisfy both the rate and latency demands of diverse applications. In particular, this study considers applications with deterministic aperiodic, deterministic periodic and nondeterministic traffic. The latency-sensitive 5G RAN slicing proposal is evaluated in Industry 4.0 scenarios where stringent and/or deterministic latency requirements are common. However, it can be evolved to support other verticals with latency-sensitive or time-critical applications.

Problem

• 5G RAN slicing
• latency-sensitive
• Industry 4.0
• time-critical applications
• network slicing

Innovation

• latency-sensitive
• 5G RAN slicing
• resource allocation
• Industry 4.0
• deterministic traffic