NASP: Network Slice as a Service Platform for newgeneration networks beyond 5G

Abstract

The 5th generation of mobile telecommunications (5G) is rapidly adopted worldwide, accelerating the demands for highly flexible private networks. In this context, 5G has mobile network slicing as one of its main features, where the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) defines three main use cases: massive Internet of Things (mIoT), enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), and Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), along with their management functions. Moreover, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) defines standards for Zero-touch network & Service Management (ZSM) without human intervention. However, the technical documents of these institutes fail to define End-to-End (E2E) management and integration among different domains and subnet instances. This work presents a network slice as a service platform (NASP) agnostically to 3GPP and non-3GPP networks. A NASP architecture is based on the main components, namely: (i) onboard requests for new slices at the business level, fulfilling the translation for definitions of physical instances, distributions, and interfaces among domains; (ii) hierarchy orchestrator working among management functions; and (iii) communication interfaces with network controllers. These configurations are based on the technical documents of entities such as 3GPP, ETSI, and O-RAN, following the study of overlapping designs and gaps among the different views. The NASP prototype was developed based on the proposed architecture, bringing implementations and solutions for an agnostic platform and provider of an end-to-end Network Slice as a Service. The tests were analyzed using two use cases (3GPP and Non-3GPP) with four different scenarios, i.e., mIoT, URLLC, 3GPP Shared, and Non-3GPP. The results pointed out the platform’s adaptability in serving different requests received by the Communication Service Management Function. Moreover, the evaluation showed the time to create a Network Slice Instance, where 68% is dedicated to the Core configuration. The tests also presented a 93% reduction in data session establishment time comparing the URLLC and Shared scenarios. Finally, the study presents the cost variation for operating the platform with the orchestration of 5 and 10 slices, presenting a variation of 112% between Edge and Central.