Broadband Communications, Networks, and Systems. 9th International EAI Conference, Broadnets 2018, Faro, Portugal, September 19–20, 2018, Proceedings

Research Article

Perspectives for 5G Network Sharing for Mobile Small Cells

Download
318 downloads
  • @INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-030-05195-2_37,
        author={Fatma Marzouk and Rui Alheiro and Jonathan Rodriguez and Ayman Radwan},
        title={Perspectives for 5G Network Sharing for Mobile Small Cells},
        proceedings={Broadband Communications, Networks, and Systems. 9th International EAI Conference, Broadnets 2018, Faro, Portugal, September 19--20, 2018, Proceedings},
        proceedings_a={BROADNETS},
        year={2019},
        month={1},
        keywords={5G C-RAN V-RAN Multi-RAT},
        doi={10.1007/978-3-030-05195-2_37}
    }
    
  • Fatma Marzouk
    Rui Alheiro
    Jonathan Rodriguez
    Ayman Radwan
    Year: 2019
    Perspectives for 5G Network Sharing for Mobile Small Cells
    BROADNETS
    Springer
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-05195-2_37
Fatma Marzouk1,*, Rui Alheiro1,*, Jonathan Rodriguez2,*, Ayman Radwan2,*
  • 1: Proef
  • 2: Instituto de Telecomunicações
*Contact email: fatma.marzouk@proef.com, Rui.Alheiro@proef.com, jonathan@av.it.pt, aradwan@av.it.pt

Abstract

Ensuring enough network resources for all emerging 5G mobile services, with the advent of 5G will be vital. Network sharing is seen as one of the adopted technologies of 5G, to enhance resource utilization by optimizing resource usage among different operators. A key enabler for network sharing is virtualization. While virtualization of the core network has already been implemented in nowadays mobile networks, the virtualization of the Radio Access Network (RAN) is still an emerging research topic that is currently investigated with the aim of exploiting a fully virtualized mobile network. In this paper, we examine a 5G RAN perspective architecture that has the merit of being a Multi-RAT, Multi band V-RAN and using end user equipment as mobile small cells. We highlight its advantages, and identify how virtualization of RAN can lead to efficient RAN resource sharing. Finally, we anticipate how some virtualization functionalities should be extended to manage the particularity of the perspective RAN architecture.