Dominant Network Slices

Network slicing is a key component of the 5G network architecture that enables support for the diverse needs modern network applications have of network services. The current state-of-the-art solution for implementing network slices, Segment Routing, has shortcomings including use of a limited abstraction ("colors") for Traffic Engineering (TE) requirements, and the use of least cost path(s) for each color. We propose a new approach that uses a Boolean algebra and partially ordered metrics to pre-compute a set of paths that satisfies the full range of performance and TE policies available in the network. This approach, in effect, computes a dominant set of paths (those where no other path has better performance) for each truth assignment to the Boolean expressions. New flows are routed over the least-congested path that satisfies the flow’s requirements. We call this approach Dominant Network Slices. This approach ensures optimal quality-of-service and policy compliance for network traffic, provides an intuitive model for network configuration, and supports a programmatic interface for network control. In this paper we review the approach, give examples that illustrate its power, and present results reported by an independent third-party test lab evaluation of functionality and performance of a prototype implementation.