Service management in virtualization-based architectures for 5G systems with network slicing

Resumen

Future 5G networks are envisioned to provide communication services in a very heterogeneous catalogue of applications. The concept of network slicing, a technology where network resources are packed and assigned to users in an isolated manner, contributes to overcome the relevant differences among all the applications scenarios. This paper proposes a new approach for the implementation and management of services and slices in future 5G systems with network slicing, based on lightweight algorithms and virtualization technologies, such as Docker or Kubernetes. The proposed solution consists of a microservice-oriented virtualization-based architecture, where Docker containers encapsulate virtual network functions configured as microservices. Kubernetes mechanisms take care of most management functions, so (in the proposed approach) only two functional components must be designed. In this paper, a possible implementation for one of these components (the specific service manager) is proposed, based on statistics and metrics generated by Kubernetes cAdvisor and simple mathematical operations. Results show an improvement in relevant network indicators such as availability and configuration time. Besides, the scalability of the proposed technology is evaluated by means of the calculation time it requires.