The Algorithmic Aspects of Network Slicing

Spyridon Vassilaras (1) , Lazaros Gkatzikis (2) , Nikolaos Liakopoulos (1) , Ioannis N Stiakogiannakis (1) , Meiyu Qi (3) , Lei Shi (4, 1) , Liu Liu (1) , Merouane Debbah (5) , Georgios S. Paschos (1)

1 Huawei Technologies France
2 KTH - Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm]
3 UNIA - University of Augsburg
4 UESTC - University of Electronic Science and Technology of China [Chengdu]
5 LANEAS - Large Networks and Systems Group

Network slicing is a technique for flexible resource provisioning in future wireless networks. With the powerful SDN and NFV technologies available, network slices can be quickly deployed and centrally managed, leading to simplified management, better resource utilization, and cost efficiency by commoditization of resources. Departing from the one-Type-fits-All design philosophy, future wireless networks will employ the network slicing methodology in order to accommodate applications with widely diverse requirements over the same physical network. On the other hand, deciding how to efficiently allocate, manage, and control the slice resources in real time is very challenging. This article focuses on the algorithmic challenges that emerge in efficient network slicing, necessitating novel techniques from the communities of operation research, networking, and computer science. © 1979-2012 IEEE.

Keywords: Algorithmic aspects; Design philosophy; Flexible resources; Future wireless networks; Novel techniques; Operation research; Physical network; Resource utilizations; Wireless networks; Index Terms-Network Slicing; Software Defined Networks; Net- work Function Virtualization; Virtual Network Embedding; Next Generation Networks; Computer applications; Electrical engineering

Domains: Formal Languages and Automata Theory [cs.FL]

Spyridon Vassilaras, Lazaros Gkatzikis, Nikolaos Liakopoulos, Ioannis N Stiakogiannakis, Meiyu Qi, et al.. The Algorithmic Aspects of Network Slicing. IEEE Communications Magazine, 2017, 55 (8), pp.112-119. ⟨10.1109/MCOM.2017.1600939⟩. ⟨hal-02305665⟩