Contextual Knowledge-based Intent Processing for Management of Next Generation Cellular Networks

Intent-based networking (IBN) facilitates the representation of consumer expectations in a declarative and domain-independent form. The deployment of intent in a network environment requires the extraction of the context from an intent expression, achieved via different levels of network and consumer information to be made available to network administrators. The network and service management domain requires organizing the available information as service and resource models in order to aid the intent propagation to available deployment controllers. Knowledge graphs provide an efficient conceptual framework for constructing contexts and organizing known information. This work proposes a knowledge organization methodology for intent processing and translation in IBN. The proposed knowledge model consists of an intent and associated extension models, and it builds on the TeleManagement forum's intent common model. Additionally, we introduce an IBN framework that leverages the specified knowledge graphs of the service model for intent interpretation, improvement, and implementation. The proposed knowledge-based IBN and service management is validated through a demonstration for both mission-critical and non-mission-critical services.