Harmonizing 3GPP and NFV description models to provide customized RAN slices in 5G networks

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unified description model that integrates 3GPP and NFV standards to enable customized RAN slices in 5G networks, addressing the limitations of existing models in managing slice-specific behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a harmonized description model that translates RAN slice requirements into NFV descriptors, facilitating tailored virtualized radio functionalities.

Findings

The model successfully describes RAN slices with diverse requirements.

It enables the translation of RAN slice needs into NFV descriptors.

An example demonstrates the model's applicability to complex RAN slices.

Abstract

The standardization of Radio Access Network (RAN) in mobile networks has traditionally been led by 3GPP. However, the emergence of RAN slicing has introduced new aspects that fall outside 3GPP scope. Among them, network virtualization enables the particularization of multiple RAN behaviors over a common physical infrastructure. Using Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) that comprise customized radio functionalities, each virtualized RAN, denominated RAN slice, could meet its specific requirements. Although 3GPP specifies the description model to manage RAN slices, it can neither particularize the behavior of a RAN slice nor leverage the NFV descriptors to define how its VNFs can accommodate its spatial and temporal traffic demands. In this article, we propose a description model that harmonizes 3GPP and ETSI-NFV viewpoints to manage RAN slices. The proposed model enables the translation of RAN slice requirements into customized virtualized radio functionalities defined through NFV descriptors. To clarify this proposal, we provide an example where three RAN slices with disruptive requirements are described following our solution.