Graph-Centric Deep Q-Learning for Interference-Aware Resource Allocation in Rsma-Enabled 5G Slicing

Abstract

The emergence of 5G and 6G advanced ecosystems demands highly adaptive resource management to orchestrate the specialised requirements of eMBB, URLLC, and mMTC network slices. In dense multi-cell environments, capturing complex spatial interdependencies and mitigating dynamic interference is paramount for maintaining Quality of Service (QoS). This paper introduces a robust GNN-DQN framework designed for Rate Splitting Multiple Access (RSMA) based networks. By representing the network topology as a graph, the framework leverages Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to extract highdimensional spatial features and model inter-cell interference patterns. These insights enable a Deep Q-Network (DQN) agent to perform intelligent resource partitioning and dynamic power splitting of the RSMA common stream. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed GNN-DQN framework achieves a connectivity success ratio exceeding 90% across all slices, representing an average improvement of over 60% compared to non-graph-based reinforcement learning and supervised baselines. Notably, the framework demonstrates exceptional spectral efficiency, maintaining near-total connectivity while utilising less than 10% of the normalised system bandwidth, a 4× reduction in resource overhead compared to traditional methods. Furthermore, the GNN-driven architecture ensures stable convergence during training, yielding a 1.6× higher system reward score. Our findings validate GNN-DQN as a high-performance, scalable, and resource-efficient paradigm for intelligent orchestration in 5G and 6G networks.