A Comprehensive Survey on the E2E 5G Network Slicing Model

Abstract

Today, the Network Slicing technology is massively addressed by the research community. However, Network Slice (NS) modelling details from Standards Developing Organizations (SDOs) are not yet well considered for End-to-End (E2E) NS implementations. In addition, each SDO develops standards targeting only a specific part of the NS architecture. Therefore, based on a profound analysis of the major existing works, this article explains first (i) a general architecture that clarifies the basic E2E network slicing functionality before diving deep into domain-specific visions. Then, (ii) it focuses at providing a survey stitching together the NS modelling works in Radio Access Networks (RAN), Core Networks (CN) and also Transport Networks (TN). The end goal is to clarify the E2E Network Slicing process from the service order request to the NS deployment and life-cycle management. Last, as there is no consensus on a specific information model in the Transport network domains (iii) we provide our vision on how several data models, developed by IETF working groups, can be integrated together in the context of the ACTN architecture in order to provision and manage Transport NSs.