The objective of this article is to demonstrate the feasibility of on-demand creation of cloud-based elastic mobile core networks, along with their lifecycle management. For this purpose the article describes the key elements to realize the architectural vision of EPC as a Service, an implementation option of the Evolved Packet Core, as specified by 3GPP, which can be deployed in cloud environments. To meet several challenging requirements associated with the implementation of EPC over a cloud infrastructure and providing it "as a Service," this article presents a number of different options, each with different characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. A thorough analysis comparing the different implementation options is also presented
5G mobile systems are expected to meet different strict requirements beyond the traditional operator use cases. Effectively, to accommodate needs of new industry segments such as health care or manufacturing, 5G systems need to accommodate elasticity, flexibility, dynamicity, scalability, manageability, agility and customization along with different levels of service delivery parameters according with the service requirements. This is currently possible only by running the networks on top of the same infrastructure, technology named network function virtualization, through this sharing the development and infrastructure costs between the different networks.In this paper, we showcase the need for the deep customization of mobile networks at different granularity levels: per network, per application, per group of users, per individual users and even per data of users. The paper also assesses the potential of network slicing to provide the appropriate customization and highlights the technology challenges. Finally, a high level architectural solution is proposed addressing a massive multi-slice environment.
Ibrahim AFOLABI †a) , Adlen KSENTINI † †b) , Miloud BAGAA †c) , Tarik TALEB †, † † †d) , Marius CORICI † † † †e) , Nonmembers, and Akihiro NAKAO † † † † †f) , Senior Member SUMMARY One of the key objectives of 5G is to evolve the current mobile network architecture from "one-fit-all" design model to a more customized and dynamically scaling one that enables the deployment of parallel systems, tailored to the service requirements on top of a shared infrastructure. Indeed, the envisioned 5G services may require different needs in terms of capacity, latency, bandwidth, reliability and security, which cannot be efficiently sustained by the same network infrastructure. Coming to address these customization challenges, network softwarization expressed through Software Defined Networking (SDN) programmable network infrastructures, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) running network functions as software and cloud computing flexibility paradigms, is seen as a possible panacea to addressing the variations in the network requirements posed by the 5G use cases. This will enable network flexibility and programmability, allow the creation and lifecycle management of virtual network slices tailored to the needs of 5G verticals expressed in the form of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) for automotive, eHealth, massive IoT, massive multimedia broadband. In this vein, this paper introduces a potential 5G architecture that enables the orchestration, instantiation and management of end-to-end network slices over multiple administrative and technological domains. The architecture is described from both the management and the service perspective, underlining the common functionality as well as how the response to the diversified service requirements can be achieved through proper software network components development.
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