Elastic Optical Networking for 5G Transport

Abstract

The 5th generation of mobile communication system (5G) is expected to change the communication landscape by 2020. 5G will provide a unified platform for connecting billions of devices and offering a wide range of networking services. The use-cases and the disruptive capabilities of 5G will bring forward a number of challenges for both the wireless radio and wired part of a 5G network. The wired transport network, typically consisting of access and core domains, has to adopt tailored networking solutions satisfying differentiated quality of service requirements as envisioned in 5G. While optical transport technology has been prevalent in core segments, it is also perceived as a key enabler for the 5G access networks due to its very high capacity and low transmission delay. However, existing optical transport technologies are hindered by inflexibility, poor resource utilization, and high costs, and cannot be stretched to 5G scale. On the other hand, optical technologies have been going through a paradigm shift towards an elastic optical network that is considered as the promising solution for future high-speed transport networks. This paper outlines key challenges for the design of a flexible, programmable, and dynamic 5G transport network, and discusses the enabling technologies and directions to address these challenges.