Optimizing Key Value Indicators in Intent-Based Networks through Digital Twins aided service orchestration mechanisms

For many years, the orchestration of network resources and services has been addressed by considering homogeneous communication infrastructures and simple Service Level Agreements (SLAs), generally defined through a list of traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Unfortunately, state-of-the-art solutions risk being quite ineffective for future telecommunication systems. Beyond 5G networks, for instance, are emerging as complex and heterogeneous ecosystems where resources belonging to diverse network domains with evolving capabilities can be dynamically exposed to support much more complex and cross-domain services and applications. At the same time, SLAs will be defined by also considering novel performance demands, including security, economic, and environmental needs. Based on these premises, this work proposes a novel orchestration strategy designed to fulfill service requirements expressed through Key Value Indicators (KVIs), while combining the potentials of both Network Digital Twins and Intent-Based Networking. Leveraging insights from Network Digital Twins, multiple service orchestration options are explored to optimize resource utilization. Simultaneously, Intent-Based Networking is adopted to streamline network management via intents, specifying Beyond 5G requirements through KPIs and KVIs. An optimal orchestration scheme has been conceived through a multi-criteria decision-making algorithm and a many-to-many matching game between domains and service requests mapped into intents, aiming to minimize SLA violations over time. The performance of the conceived solution has been investigated through computer simulations in realistic scenarios. The obtained results clearly highlight its effectiveness and demonstrate that it is able to reduce SLA violations (related to latency, throughput, costs, and cyber risk requirements) by up to 22.44% compared to other baseline techniques.