Multi-PoP Network Slice Deployment: A Feasibility Study

Abstract

Network slicing is seen as a key enabler for meeting the diverse network service requirements, which stem from the transition to 5G. Furthermore, network slicing provides inherent support for multi-tenancy, enabling network providers to slice their infrastructure and resell it to a large number of tenants. Most existing work on slicing has been focused on certain mechanisms (e.g., slice embedding) and architecture specifications. As such, the performance and scalability with network slice instantiation has not been studied in depth. These aspects are even more critical in the case of slice deployments across multiple Points-of-Presence (PoP), since the various slice components should be stitched together for the end-to-end slice instantiation. In this paper, we present the design and prototype implementation of a network slicing architecture, based on which we perform a feasibility study of network slicing using multiple experimental infrastructures. Our prototype implementation supports all the required functionality for slice instantiation, such as resource discovery, slice embedding, resource provisioning, link setup, and inter-PoP slice segment stitching. Our experimental results corroborate the feasibility of multi-PoP network slicing. We further gain useful insights on slice instantiation performance and scalability.

5G Network Slice Isolation

“…These mobile network infrastructures and services utilize virtualization, containerization and SDN technologies to increase the flexibility of network provision, deployment and operational models and the business transformation and service agility across multiple mobile networks. In particular, these mobile network infrastructures or services provide network independence and network seclusion, which has been demonstrated with multiple points-of-presence slice segment stitching to construct a network slice and also various resources being flexibly manipulated for a network slice [12]. Traditionally, the MNO only has a single administrative domain (AD) to manage, a network element and subscriber to protect, an impersonation of a subscriber to prevent, static attack vectors to identify, etc.…”

A Survey of End-to-End Solutions for Reliable Low-Latency Communications in 5G Networks

“…EDGE and SDN, the previous two technologies presented, can be combined with NFV, as shown by Huang et al [148], Yang et al [151], Costa-Requena et al [161], etc. Other relevant contributions combining NFV with other technologies include the works of Bekkouche et al [177], Valsamas et al [178] and Yao et al [179]. Bekkouche et al [177] propose an extended framework for the management and orchestration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).…”

“…Sun et al [175] NFV MANO: SC Optimization Fan et al [176] NFV MANO: Redundancy NFV MANO: SC Optimization Bekkouche et al [177] Slice Mgmt: EDGE Selection Slice Mgmt: Offloading NFV MANO: Plcmt & Migr. Valsamas et al [178] Slice Mgmt: Network Stitching Yao et al [179] Slice Mgmt: Network Stitching [183] DP Mgmt: Caching Zhang et al [184] DP Mgmt: Caching Sardara et al [185] Ctxt Awa: Cross-layer Dannewitz et al [186] DP Mgmt: Caching Wang et al [187] Ctxt Awa: Cross-layer Vakilina et al [188] DP Mgmt: Congestion control samas et al [178] and Yao et al [179] present network slicing platforms that support different interconnected services and achieve improved latency and reliability, respectively.…”

The NECOS Approach to End-to-End Cloud-Network Slicing as a Service

“…The main contributions of this article are three-fold: (i) an overview of the capabilities required to support end-to-end cloud-network slicing over multiple cloud and network resource providers; (ii) the final design of the novel NECOS LSDC architecture, offering those capabilities via the Sliceas-a-Service model; and (iii) an evaluation of the NECOS modular architecture and the above six NECOS features through the testbed experimentation of three different scenarios built upon proof-of-concept software prototypes. The work described in [9] introduces the initial proposal in the context of the project, while [10] covers an earlier feasibility study of NECOS. This article extends both previous publications by exercising the architecture and system platform (fully detailed in project deliverables [11], [12]) in three proof-of-concept experiments on the final implementation.…”