Techno‐Economic Analysis for Programmable Networks

Abstract

The advent of the fifth generation (5G) of mobile networks will boost technology, as new solutions are needed to meet the growing 5G‐related demands identified both by scientists and telecommunication providers. Programmable logic solutions will be used, as they provide financial, performance, and environmental benefits. The programmable logic nowadays is represented by the combination of the software‐defined networking (SDN) technology with network function virtualization (NFV). This combination not only reduces hardware – as most network components are replaced by network functions or virtual machines (VMs) – but also offers better resource allocation and provides more bandwidth, CPU, etc., to the parts of the network that have become more congested. Solutions, such as SDN, may concentrate fundamental advantages and profits, but they appear to face basic problems, therefore raising key questions concerning their cost and safety. One of these issues contains all the expenses for the acquisition of the technology and the adjustments that need to be incorporated into current infrastructure in order to cover SDN networks as well. This article analyzes a programmable model of SDN combined with NFVs. A sensitivity analysis (SA) is conducted to determine the factors that largely influence the pricing so as to propose ways to significantly reduce several types of costs and propose solutions or research directions to cut down on the expenses of these network factors.