Enhancing a 5G Network Slicing Management Model to Improve the Support of Mobile Virtual Network Operators

• Published in: IEEE access 2021, Vol.9, p.131382-131399
• Main Authors: Cardenas, Andres, Fernandez, David, Lentisco, Carlos M., Moyano, Ricardo Flores, Bellido, Luis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3GPP; 5G mobile communication; Computational modeling; Computer architecture; Customization; Infrastructure; multiaccess edge computing; network function virtualization; Network slicing; Object oriented modeling; Proposals; software-defined networks; Virtual networks; virtualized network function orchestration; Wireless networks
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3114645

Network slicing is a key element in 5G networks. It allows a mobile network operator (MNO) to offer multiple logical networks tailored to the requirements of different industry verticals over a shared infrastructure. From the point of view of an MNO, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a particular type of vertical network requiring not only the provision of logical networks with specific infrastructure resources but also customized management capabilities to allow the MVNO to offer network slice-based services to its clients over the infrastructure of multiple MNOs. However, the lack of flexibility to provide a customized and efficient network slice management system per tenant under the current proposals of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) limits the possibilities of MVNOs. This paper addresses this requirement by proposing a novel virtualized multidomain and multiclient orchestration system aligned with the functionalities of the network slicing management framework proposed by the 3GPP and ETSI. In particular, there are three contributions of this paper: (i) an extended service-based architecture is designed to provide an isolated management system to different MVNOs; (ii) a novel high-level slice instance template is defined to specify management and isolation requirements supporting network slicing as a service model; and (iii) finally, a teleoperated driving use case is described to showcase how our proposal provides an MVNO with an independent management system to orchestrate several network slices in cross-domain environments.