Degeneracy-Aware Functional and Algorithmic Resilience in Virtualized 6G Networks Under Correlated Failures

TL;DR

This paper introduces a degeneracy-aware framework with new metrics to better assess resilience in virtualized 6G networks, emphasizing structural and algorithmic diversity over simple redundancy.

Contribution

It formalizes three metrics—FSS, ARQ, and MLDI—to quantify structural and algorithmic diversity, providing a more accurate resilience assessment in virtualized networks.

Findings

Redundancy and robustness can significantly diverge.

FSS effectively separates structural diversity from replica count.

ARQ identifies genuinely diverse algorithms, not just similar implementations.

Abstract

Redundancy is widely used to sustain service continuity in programmable and virtualized networks; however, replicated functions often share platforms, software stacks, and control dependencies, making them vulnerable to correlated failures. Consequently, replica counts alone may overestimate true resilience. This paper adopts a degeneracy-aware perspective, where robustness depends on the availability of structurally diverse yet functionally equivalent alternatives. We formalize this perspective through three complementary metrics: the Functional Substitution Score (FSS), which quantifies structurally distinct substitutes for a function; the Algorithmic Resilience Quotient (ARQ), which measures diversity among algorithms that remain comparable in delivered performance; and the Multi-Layer Degeneracy Index (MLDI), which captures how functional diversity is distributed across architectural layers. Using targeted disruption protocols on a synthesized data, we show that redundancy and robustness can diverge substantially. The results show that FSS separates structural diversity from replica count, ARQ distinguishes genuine algorithmic alternatives from near-duplicate implementations, and MLDI captures cross-layer buffering that remains hidden under redundancy-only analysis. These findings establish degeneracy as a practical resilience primitive for open, disaggregated, and virtualized 6G systems.