On Slice Isolation Options in the Transport Network and Associated Feasibility Indicators

TL;DR

This paper surveys various technical approaches for network slice isolation in 5G transport networks and proposes feasibility indicators to guide slice provisioning and reconfiguration decisions.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive comparison of isolation techniques and defines new feasibility indicators for transport slice management in 5G networks.

Findings

Different isolation approaches are characterized and compared.

Feasibility indicators are proposed to assist in network slice provisioning.

Guidelines for orchestration decisions based on the indicators are provided.

Abstract

Isolation is one of the more relevant attributes associated to the idea of network slicing, introduced by 5G services. Through isolation it is expected that slices from different customers could gracefully coexist without interfering each other, in the sense that whatever misbehavior or unforeseen demand from one slice customer could not affect the communication service received by any other slice customer supported atop the same physical transport infrastructure. This paper surveys and compare different technical approaches that can be taken for providing distinct isolation levels in the transport network, as a major component of end-to-end network slices. Furthermore, a number of isolation feasibility indicators are defined and proposed. These indicators are based on the approaches referred before, as a mean of guiding orchestration decisions at the time of provisioning or reconfiguring the transport slices in the network.