Multivariate and Multi-step Traffic Prediction for NextG Networks with SLA Violation Constraints

This paper focuses on predicting downlink (DL) traffic volume in mobile networks while minimizing overprovisioning and meeting a given service-level agreement (SLA) violation rate. We present a multivariate, multi-step, and SLA-driven approach that incorporates 20 different radio access network (RAN) features, a custom feature set based on peak traffic hours, and handover-based clustering to leverage the spatiotemporal effects. In addition, we propose a custom loss function that ensures the SLA violation rate constraint is satisfied while minimizing overprovisioning. We also perform multi-step prediction up to 24 steps ahead and evaluate performance under both single-step and multi-step prediction conditions. Our study makes several contributions, including the analysis of RAN features, the custom feature set design, a custom loss function, and a parametric method to satisfy SLA constraints.