LTE mobile network virtualization

Abstract

Network virtualization is receiving immense attention in the research community all over the world. There is no doubt that it will play a significant role in shaping the way we do networking in the future. There have been different approaches to virtualize different aspects of the network: some are focusing on resource virtualization like node, server and router virtualization; while others are focusing on building a framework to set up virtual networks on the fly based on different virtual resources. Nevertheless, one very important piece of the puzzle is still missing, that is “Wireless Virtualization”. The virtualization of the wireless medium has not yet received the appropriate attention it is entitled to, and there have only been some early attempts in this field. In this paper a general framework for virtualizing the wireless medium is proposed and investigated. This framework focuses on virtualizing mobile communication systems so that multiple operators can share the same physical resources while being able to stay isolated from each other. We mainly focus on the Long Term Evolution (LTE) but the framework can also be generalized to fit any other wireless system. The goal of the paper is to exploit the advantages that can be obtained from virtualizing the LTE system, more specifically virtualizing the air interface (i.e. spectrum sharing). Two different possible gain areas are explored: spectrum multiplexing and multi-user diversity.