A Utility-Based Resource Allocation in Virtualized Cloud Radio Access Network

Abstract

Network slicing is an emerging paradigm for 5G networks. Network slices are considered as different and independent virtualized end-to-end networks on a common physical infrastructure. Wireless resource virtualization is the key enabler to achieve high resource efficiency and meanwhile to isolate network slices from one another. In this paper, we propose a slice-specific utility-based resource allocation scheme in cloud radio access networks, where two sets of slices with different requirements are supported simultaneously. Every slice can determine its preference factor in utility function considering the trade-off between bandwidth gain and energy consumption. The objective is to maximize the sum utility of all slices taking the trade-off of all slices into account, which can be formulated as a mixed binary integer nonlinear programming problem. The Lagrange dual method is applied to solve the joint optimization problem. Finally, The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated and the results show that the proposed scheme can meet different customized requirements of all slices, and enhance system performance when compared with other methods.