A Network Slicing Component for LTE Uplink Transmission

Abstract

Upcoming 5G mobile systems are expected to meet the QoS requirements of a massive amount of devices with different service constraints. In this context, 5G networks can not rely on the monolithic architecture present in today’s networks. 5G mobile systems intend using network slicing to enable the creation of multiple logical networks (network slices) on top of a common physical infrastructure. These network slices are tailored according to the users’ service requirements. Network slicing can be deployed due to the consolidation of multiple technologies, such as NFV and SDN. This paper introduces a component named Slice Optimizer, implemented as an extension of LTE’s evolved NodeB, responsible to realize network slicing for LTE uplink transmission. The Slice Optimizer receives network slicing information from an Orchestrator, which is embedded in an SDN Controller. The Slice Optimizer, based on these network slicing information and on the current network state, selects the best slice to be scheduled at the moment. We performed extensive simulations to evaluate our proposal. The results show that our proposal can adapt to the network state, significantly increasing the user’s QoS experience.