An Analytical Model for Multi-Tenant Radio Access Networks Supporting Guaranteed Bit Rate Services

Abstract

Network slicing is a key feature of forthcoming fifth generation (5G) systems to facilitate the partitioning of the network into multiple logical networks customized according to different business and application needs. Network slicing is a fundamental capability for enabling a cost-effective deployment and operation of 5G, as it allows the materialization of multi-tenant networks in which the same infrastructure is shared among multiple communication providers, each one using a different slice. This paper proposes a Markovian approach to characterize the resource sharing in multi-tenant scenarios with diverse guaranteed bit rate services by considering a slice-aware admission control policy. After describing the Markov model and its implementation and discussing its suitability, the model is applied to study the performance attained in a scenario with two different slices, one for enhanced mobile broadband communications and the other for mission critical services. The system is analyzed under standard and disaster situations, thus illustrating the capability to properly manage the different multi-tenant and multi-service traffic loads.