Towards Service-oriented 5G: Virtualizing the Networks for Everything-as-a-Service

TL;DR

This paper envisions a future 5G wireless network architecture that virtualizes network resources, enabling a flexible, service-oriented approach called Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS), to address heterogeneity and density challenges.

Contribution

It introduces the XaaS taxonomy for virtualized wireless networks, outlining concepts, challenges, and research opportunities for service-oriented 5G networks.

Findings

Proposes a virtualized, service-oriented 5G architecture.

Highlights challenges in implementing XaaS in wireless networks.

Discusses research opportunities for future wireless network design.

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that the forthcoming 5G architecture will be highly heterogeneous and deployed with a high degree of density. These changes over the current 4G bring many challenges on how to achieve an efficient operation from the network management perspective. In this article, we introduce a revolutionary vision of the future 5G wireless networks, in which the network is no longer limited by hardware or even software. Specifically, by the idea of virtualizing the wireless networks, which has recently gained increasing attention, we introduce the Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) taxonomy to light the way towards designing the service-oriented wireless networks. The concepts, challenges along with the research opportunities for realizing XaaS in wireless networks are overviewed and discussed.