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The development of network softwarization technologies, which leads to network slicing concept, will cause the significant disruption of the current telecommunications sector. Its significance is still underestimated. New roles are expected to appear in the ecosystem, and the mutual relations will be established dynamically. In this article, we have made an attempt to show how network slicing can impact business models of telecommunication network operators. The traditional models of fixed/mobile operators have been described. For reference, the cloud delivery models have been shown. Then the approaches of telecom industry alliances and standard developing organizations are presented, which are conservative and simple evolution of the existing business models. Finally, the comprehensive future business model of network slicing is presented, which is based on widely accepted network slicing concepts. In the concept, the software dimension of network slicing has been emphasized, especially the significant role of brokers that can provide infrastructure brokering, service brokering, or even slice template brokering. The implementation of the proposed approach requires some changes in the Management and Orchestration (MANO) framework to unleash the full technoeconomical potential of network slicing.

This paper presents a concept of integration of MEC into the 5G network slicing architecture. Three variants of the architecture have been proposed, which incorporate: individual MEP/MEPM for each slice, shared ones for multiple network slices and Distributed Autonomous Slice Management and Orchestration (DASMO) approach. Each variant is focused on efficient integration of 5G Core and MEC solutions and utilizing additional functionalities of both components, including MEC APIs and 5G Control Plane exposure capabilities. Finally, main issues of 5G-MEC implementation have been discussed, which include the aspects of MEC service APIs, MEC Apps mobility in demanding use cases, challenges of service continuity in roaming scenarios as well as the role and availability of 5G enablers.

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