Hierarchical UI for 5G Network Slice Provisioning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems are inadequate in visualizing and managing large numbers of clouds and resources within a network slice, particularly in 5G network provisioning, as they struggle to effectively illustrate and administer the various elements and sub-elements such as clouds, cloud providers, data centers, resource groups, resources, clusters, manager nodes, and worker nodes, leading to obscured information and inefficient management.
Innovation Solution
A user interface is developed that provides a hierarchical visualization of network slices, enabling expanding, collapsing, filtering, and grouping capabilities, allowing users to manage vast numbers of clouds and resources on a single screen with seamless interaction, facilitating on-demand provisioning of communication services and reducing administrative overhead.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If conventional visualization tools are used to display network slice elements, then the system can show all clouds and resources, but the user interface becomes complex and difficult to operate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the network slice elements into hierarchical groups (clouds, cloud providers, data centers, resource groups, resources, clusters, manager nodes, worker nodes). This segmentation allows the system to display thousands of elements by organizing them into manageable hierarchical levels, where users can navigate through grouped elements rather than viewing all individual elements at once, thus maintaining ease of operation while displaying large quantities of data.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hierarchical dimension to the visualization interface. Instead of displaying all elements in a single flat view, the system creates multiple levels of abstraction (parent-child relationships between groups and individual elements). This dimensional change allows users to navigate through the network slice structure systematically, reducing interface complexity while accommodating large numbers of elements across different hierarchical levels.
2Loss of information
If all network slice elements are displayed simultaneously, then complete information is provided, but relevant information becomes obscured among excessive elements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing users to focus on specific regions or groups of interest within the network slice hierarchy. The interface enables selective expansion and collapse of hierarchical groups, so users can concentrate detailed attention on particular clouds, resource groups, or nodes while keeping other areas in a condensed state. This maintains complete information availability while ensuring relevant information remains visible and not obscured by unnecessary details.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts specific elements or groups from the overall network slice visualization based on user selection or relevance. By allowing users to select particular clouds, resource groups, or nodes and display them in detail while keeping other elements in a summarized or collapsed state, the system maintains complete information in the background while bringing relevant information to the foreground for easy detection and analysis.
3Ease of operation
If multiple views are used to manage different network elements, then detailed control is achieved, but the provisioning process becomes time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal hierarchical interface that can display and manage multiple types of network slice elements (clouds, cloud providers, data centers, resource groups, resources, clusters, manager nodes, worker nodes) within a single unified view. This multi-functional interface eliminates the need to switch between multiple specialized views, allowing users to manage different elements systematically in one place while maintaining detailed control through the hierarchical structure, thus reducing provisioning time without sacrificing management precision.
Data Source
Figure 1
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Figure 3A
AI summary
An example network provisioning system displays a user interface comprising a first plurality of icons, each icon of the first plurality of icons representing a cloud provider or a data center associated with a network slice. The network provisioning system receives, via the user interface, a selection of a first icon of the first plurality of icons. Responsive to the selection of the first icon, the network provisioning system displays a second plurality of icons via the user interface. Each icon of the second plurality of icons represents a resource group hosted by a cloud provider or data center represented by the first icon. In some examples, the network slice is a 5G communication slice. It is intended that, when published, the abstract be accompanied by Figure 1.