Hybrid Time Series Transformer–Deep Belief Network for Robust Anomaly Detection in Mobile Communication Networks

Abstract

The rapid evolution of 5G and emerging 6G networks has increased system complexity, data volume, and security risks, making anomaly detection vital for ensuring reliability and resilience. However, existing machine learning (ML)-based approaches still face challenges related to poor generalization, weak temporal modeling, and degraded accuracy under heterogeneous and imbalanced real-world conditions. To overcome these limitations, a hybrid time series transformer–deep belief network (HTST-DBN) is introduced, integrating the sequential modeling strength of TST with the hierarchical feature representation of DBN, while an improved orchard algorithm (IOA) performs adaptive hyper-parameter optimization. The framework also embodies the concept of symmetry and asymmetry. The IOA introduces controlled symmetry-breaking between exploration and exploitation, while the TST captures symmetric temporal patterns in network traffic whose asymmetric deviations often indicate anomalies. The proposed method is evaluated across four benchmark datasets (ToN-IoT, 5G-NIDD, CICDDoS2019, and Edge-IoTset) that capture diverse network environments, including 5G core traffic, IoT telemetry, mobile edge computing, and DDoS attacks. Experimental evaluation is conducted by benchmarking HTST-DBN against several state-of-the-art models, including TST, bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), DBN, deep reinforcement learning (DRL), convolutional neural network (CNN), and random forest (RF) classifiers. The proposed HTST-DBN achieves outstanding performance, with the highest accuracy reaching 99.61%, alongside strong recall and area under the curve (AUC) scores. The HTST-DBN framework presents a scalable and reliable solution for anomaly detection in next-generation mobile networks. Its hybrid architecture, reinforced by hyper-parameter optimization, enables effective learning in complex, dynamic, and heterogeneous environments, making it suitable for real-world deployment in future 5G/6G infrastructures.