The Structure of Service Level Agreement of Slice-based 5G Network

TL;DR

This paper proposes a comprehensive end-to-end SLA framework for slice-based 5G networks, detailing metrics and balancing interests of tenants and providers to ensure reliable, secure, and QoS-compliant services.

Contribution

It introduces a novel SLA structure tailored for 5G network slices, addressing key metrics and stakeholder interests in a unified framework.

Findings

Defines SLA metrics like throughput, penalty, cost, revenue, profit, and QoS.

Balances interests of tenants and service providers.

Ensures reliable, secure, and QoS-compliant telecommunication services.

Abstract

Network slicing is considered to be one of the key enablers to Fifth Generation (5G) communication system. Legacy telecommunication networks have been providing various services to all kinds of customers through a single network infrastructure. In contrast, with the deployment of network slicing, operators are now able to partition entire network into different slices, each with its own configuration and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. There are many applications across industry, each needs an independent slice with its own functions and features. All these applications open new business opportunities, which require new business models and therefore every single slice needs an individual Service Level Agreement (SLA). In this paper, we proposed a comprehensive end-to-end structure of SLA between tenant and service provider of slice-based 5G network, which balances the interests of both sides. The proposed SLA is expected to define reliability, availability, and performance of delivered telecommunication services in order to ensure that right information gets to the right destination at right time, safely and securely. We also discussed the metrics of slice-based network SLA such as throughput, penalty, cost, revenue, profit, and QoS related metrics, which we think are very critical to be considered during the agreement.