This project is supported by NSF #2538305 (07/01/2026-06/30/2031).
Sharing network resources using "network slicing" is the key technique in cellular 5G and beyond wireless networks to flexibly and cost-efficiently support emerging applications with extremely diverse needs, such as augmented reality (AR), autonomous driving, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). With the momentum of open network initiatives (e.g., O-RAN), the network orchestration problem--how to provide needed resources to a dynamic and diverse set of applications--becomes increasingly complex and challenging, due factors such as the high number of network states and the need for nearly real-time control (e.g., milliseconds). Existing coarse-grained solutions cannot tackle this fine-grained network orchestration problem in terms of responsiveness, cost-efficiency, and autonomy, which limits the wide adoption of network slicing by telecommunication network providers. The vision of this project is to achieve network slicing as a service (slicing-as-a-service) with autonomous network orchestration to agilely support arbitrary mobile applications with extremely low costs. This project would advance online network automation in next-generation mobile networks, in terms of autonomy, intelligence, adaptability, and assurance.
The research program of this CAREER project will derive a novel systematic framework of trustworthy AI-native network autonomy in open RAN. First, new online task-oriented digital network twin (DNT) frameworks will be designed to derive DNTs with all the attributes of fidelity, synchronicity, and tractability. Second, new safe deep reinforcement learning (DRL) frameworks will be designed to achieve verifiable safety for online resource allocation (e.g., dApps/xApps) in real-world networks. Third, new explanation-guided Bayesian optimization frameworks will be designed to achieve interpretable safety for online network configuration (e.g., rApps) under time-evolving dynamics. Moreover, the education program will develop a new campus-wide wireless educational platform based on Husker-Net, a private cellular edge network, to serve multiple courses and educate hundreds of students; establish a new graduate connect program to promote graduate student success and retain talent in Nebraska; and launch a new virtual Hour-of-Code event to engage, inspire, and educate K-12 students.
- Principal Investigator: Dr. Qiang Liu, Assistant Professor, School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Graduate Student: Yuru Zhang, School of Computing, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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