Coalitional Game for the Creation of Efficient Virtual Core Network Slices in 5G Mobile Systems

Abstract

Many ongoing research activities relevant to 5G mobile systems concern the virtualization of the mobile core network, including the evolved packet core (EPC) elements, aiming for system scalability, elasticity, flexibility, and cost-efficiency. Virtual EPC (vEPC)/5G core will principally rely on some key technologies, such as network function virtualization, software defined networking, and cloud computing, enabling the concept of mobile carrier cloud. The key idea beneath this concept, also known as core network as a service, consists in deploying virtual instances (i.e., virtual machines or containers) of key core network functions [i.e., virtual network functions (VNF) of 4G or 5G], such as the mobility management entity (MME), Serving GateWay (SGW), Packet Data network gateWay (PGW), access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), authentication server function (AUSF), and user plane functions, over a federated cloud. In this vein, an efficient VNF placement algorithm is highly needed to sustain the quality of service (QoS) while reducing the deployment cost. Our contribution in this paper is twofold. First, we devise an algorithm that derives the optimal number of virtual instances of 4G (MME, SGW, and PGW) or 5G (AMF, SMF, and AUSF) core network elements to meet the requirements of a specific mobile traffic. Second, we propose an algorithm for the placement of these virtual instances over a federated cloud. While the first algorithm is based on mixed integer linear programming, the second is based on coalition formation game, wherein the aim is to build coalitions of cloud networks to host the virtual instances of the vEPC/5G core elements. The obtained results clearly indicate the advantages of the proposed algorithms in ensuring QoS given a fixed cost for vEPC/5G core deployment, while maximizing the profits of cloud operators.

AMF Optimal Placement based on Deep Reinforcement Learning in Heterogeneous Radio Access Network

“…Both of the solutions introduce important challenges, mainly related to the placement of the telco-specific VNFs (i.e. MME, PGW, SGW, AM-F, SMF, and AUSF) to ensure optimal connectivity for users and simultaneously reduce the deployment cost [7].…”

“…Some of them focus on the mapping of vEPC [7][8][9][10][11][12][13], which mainly related to the optimization of mobility management on data plane, while others concentrate on the mapping of vMME [7,[11][12][13][14][15] and optimal placement of mobility management related VNFs. For example, in [7], the placement of virtual network slice is proposed over a federated cloud by deploying the virtual instances of key vEPC NFs considering both 4G and new N-Fs of 5G. In [8], the concept of soft Evolved Packet Core (softEPC) is presented to instantiate the virtual network functions of EPC flexibly and dynamically over a physical network topology.…”

“…In [8], the concept of soft Evolved Packet Core (softEPC) is presented to instantiate the virtual network functions of EPC flexibly and dynamically over a physical network topology. Regarding the optimization objects, operation cost, load balancing and delay/response time are major objectives in these issues [7,11,12,14].…”

“…Different placement of AMF, SMF, UDM, UPF and AUSF brings about different performance of mobility management, which sheds a light on the research direction of mobility management [5,6]. In [7], the placement of virtual network slice is addressed by deploying AMF, SMF, UPF and AUSF in 5G. In [16], based on Bayesian coalition formation game, the optimal coalition is formulated to deploy AMF, UPF and SMF collaboratively, the number of VNF instances to instantiate and the virtual resources allocated for each instance are optimized to maximize the profit of each cloud provider and guarantee the Quality of Service (QoS).…”

A Fuzzy Logic-based Mechanism for An Efficient Cloud Resource Planning

“…Although in several other deployments, UE-related parameters (e.g., delay and mobility) were neglected, they were considered in the recent work of the authors [14], [19], [23]- [25], [28], [29]. In [14], a new simulator dubbed Network Slice Planner (NSP) was introduced.…”