Introducing network slice management inside M-CORD-based-5G framework

Abstract

Network slicing has been considered as one of the fundamental technologies in the fifth generation (5G) mobile networks. Slicing mechanism enables virtual networks while providing customized services on demand. There are several papers attempting to narrow down the architectural requirement for 5G networks. Many of them consider the aspect of slice creation as a central point, sometimes strengthening slices with slice isolation. The aim of this paper is to focus more on network slice management, slicing of transport network (TN) and challenges to elaborate technological options and enablers, irrespective of the slicing mechanism. Our proposed framework creates, manages and associates the slice to user equipment (UE) upon the request made by different applications. Proposed framework exploits the key features offered by CORD including OpenStack and ONOS as well as modules based on M-CORD such as vBBU, NSSF and vEPC for establishing a network slice scenario.