Monitoring 5G radio access networks with cloud-based stream processing platforms

Abstract

Cloud Radio Access Networks (C-RAN) are being adopted for future generations of access networks. 5G RAN services are expected to be built on cloud technologies, in combination with network function virtualization (NFV), leading to the use of virtual computing resources in RAN assets. Beyond standard RAN computing, many devices can benefit from this cloud and virtualization trend. 5G RAN monitoring middleboxes are particularly interesting to be implemented as virtual network functions (VNF) and run with C-RAN resources, in order to satisfy the technical requirements of 5G networks. In addition, there is a new paradigm shift in network monitoring, which leads to the adoption of stream processing. Therefore, we propose to investigate the design of RAN monitoring services as VNFs, provided as cloud services, built with stream processing platforms, to enable 5G network monitoring with fast data analysis. This paper describes a framework for 5G RAN monitoring with streams, and experiments with this framework.