Recent advancements in the rollout of 5G and 6G have led to the emergence of a new range of latency-critical applications delivered via a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) enabled paradigm of flexible and softwarized communication networks. Evolving verticals like telecommunications, smart grid, virtual reality (VR), industry 4.0, automated vehicles, etc. are driven by the vision of low latency and high reliability, and there is a wide gap to efficiently bridge the Quality of Service (QoS) constraints for both the service providers and the end-user. In this work, we look to tackle the over-provisioning of latency-critical services by proposing a proactive SLA management framework leveraging Graph Neural Networks (GNN) and Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) to balance the trade-off between efficiency and reliability. To summarize our key contributions: 1) we compose a graph-based spatio-temporal multivariate time-series forecasting model with multiple time-step predictions in a multi-output scenario, delivering 74.62% improved performance over the established baseline state-of-art model on the use-case; and 2) we leverage realistic SLA definitions for the use-case to achieve a dynamic SLA-aware oversight for scaling policy management with DRL.

While the focus of this article is AI for communications technology, there are significant applications for weather, military, industrial, healthcare, finance with significant investments in each underway. Summary – By taking a broader view of what AI is than just a series of algorithms applied to a particular task, new and better outcomes can be realized and greater integration of AI within the organization. If you ask why we need quantum computing the answer is that the larger the dataset and the more complex the algorithm, the greater the processing required for testing and re-testing the results.

As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, several new technological trends have begun to transform the systems that enable us to both work and live. Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is allowing network operators to both reduce their outgoings and speed-up the deployment of new services and this concept is currently becoming more and more widespread around the world. In this two-part series of articles, we'll be looking at what Network Function Virtualization is, how it works, how it compares to SDN, what its benefits are and, later, what it means for the Fourth Industrial Revolution alongside the likes of Software Defined Networking (SDN). As advanced automation, driverless vehicles, robotics, drones, AI, virtualization and 5G wireless communications technologies all drive us further into the future, it is already glaringly obvious that what has become known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution is well and truly underway. However, in order to truly unlock the promises of technologies such as automation and driverless vehicles, certain underlying architectures will need to be in place before we can begin to do so.