A survey on the communication and network enablers for cloud-based services: state of the art, challenges, and opportunities

Abstract

The wide adoption of the cloud computing concept has resulted in major impacts in both fixed and mobile communication networks leading to cutting-edge research to provide appropriate network architecture and protocols, along with resource management mechanisms. Cloud computing research has been witnessing the interplay between the system and communication aspects in order to offer powerful inter-networking and interoperability between the systems and networks. This paper reviews recent works focusing on architectural design issues, virtualization solutions, and challenges in cloud communications and networking. We mainly discuss the architectural challenges and solutions in today’s leading cloud communication technologies starting with network virtualization, software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), and SDN-enabled NFV solutions. Furthermore, considering the benefits of cloud computing for mobile communications, we overview the cloud-RAN architecture for radio access networks, along with its support for various existing and future wireless communication technologies including future 5G wireless networks. We study each cloud communication technology by focusing on the existing works from the standpoint of objectives, challenges, and solutions. Furthermore, for all cloud communication concepts, we present a thorough discussion on the open issues and opportunities.