5G-ICN : Delivering ICN Services over 5G using Network Slicing

TL;DR

This paper proposes a 5G-ICN architecture leveraging network slicing, NFV, and SDN to enable innovative ICN-based services and mobility solutions within 5G networks, comparing it to existing architectures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 5G-ICN architecture, a flexible application-driven framework, and details on resource management for mobility-as-a-service within 5G slices.

Findings

5G-ICN can coexist with traditional IP services.

The framework enhances flexibility through NFV and SDN.

Resource provisioning strategies support MaaS objectives.

Abstract

The challenging requirements of 5G--from both the applications and the architecture perspectives--motivate the need to explore the feasibility of delivering services over new network architectures. As 5G proposes application-centric network slicing, which enables the use of new data planes realizable over a programmable compute, storage, and transport infrastructure, we consider Information-centric Networking (ICN) as a candidate network architecture to realize 5G objectives. This can co-exist with end-to-end IP services that are offered today. To this effect, we first propose a 5G-ICN architecture and compare its benefits (i.e., innovative services offered by leveraging ICN features) to current 3GPP-based mobile architectures. We then introduce a general application-driven framework that emphasizes on the flexibility afforded by Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) over which 5G-ICN can be realized. We specifically focus on the issue of how mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) can be realized as a 5G-ICN slice, and give an in-depth overview on resource provisioning and inter-dependencies and -coordinations among functional 5G-ICN slices to meet the MaaS objectives.