Core network function placement in self-deployable mobile networks

Abstract

Emerging mobile network architectures (e.g., aerial networks, disaster relief networks) are disrupting the classical careful planning and deployment of mobile networks by requiring specific self-deployment strategies. Such networks, referred to as self-deployable, are formed by interconnected rapidly deployable base stations that have no dedicated backhaul connection towards a traditional core network. Instead, an entity providing essential core network functionalities is co-located with one of the base stations. In this work, we tackle the problem of placing this core network entity within a self-deployable mobile network, i.e., we determine with which of the base stations it must be co-located. We propose a novel centrality metric, the flow centrality, which measures a node capacity of receiving the total amount of flows in the network. We show that in order to maximize the amount of exchanged traffic between the base stations and the core network entity, under certain capacity and load distribution constraints, the latter should be co-located with the base station having the maximum flow centrality. We first compare our proposed metric to other state of the art centralities. Then, we highlight the significant traffic loss occurring when the core network entity is not placed on the node with the maximum flow centrality, which could reach 55% in some cases.