The fifth generation (5G) of cellular networks promises to be a major step in the evolution of wireless technology. 5G is planned to be used in a very broad set of application scenarios. These scenarios have strict heterogeneous requirements that will be accomplished by enhancements on the radio access network and a collection of innovative wireless technologies. Softwarization technologies, such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), will play a key role in integrating these different technologies. Network slicing emerges as a cost-efficient solution for the implementation of the diverse 5G requirements and verticals. The 5G radio access and core networks will be based on a SDN/NFV infrastructure, which will be able to orchestrate the resources and control the network in order to efficiently and flexibly and with scalability provide network services. In this paper, we present the up-to-date status of the software-defined 5G radio access and core networks and a broad range of future research challenges on the orchestration and control aspects.

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Orchestration and Control in Software-Defined 5G Networks: Research Challenges

We study in this paper optimal control strategy for Advanced Sleep Modes (ASM) in 5G networks. ASM correspond to different levels of sleep modes ranging from deactivation of some components of the base station for several micro-seconds to switching off of almost all of them for one second or more. ASMs are made possible in 5G networks thanks to the definition of so-called lean carrier radio access which allows for configurable signaling periodicities. We model such a system using Markov Decision Processes (MDP) and find optimal sleep policy in terms of a trade-off between saved power consumption versus additional incurred delay for user traffic which has to wait for the network components to be woken-up and serve it. Eventually, for the system not to oscillate between sleep levels, we add a switching component in the cost function and show its impact on the energy reduction versus delay trade-off.

Optimal Policies of Advanced Sleep Modes for Energy-Efficient 5G networks

Orange has investigated for decades on innovative energy storage such as batteries aiming to replace the previous technologies by improved solution, but only few attempts have succeeded to reach the level of generalization on the operational field in Telecom core and network central offices, remote access sites and datacenters. This document reports part of the Orange long energy storage quest and ends by latest researches and tests resulting in potential partial replacement of the dominant lead-acid technology and in international ITU-T and ETSI standardization of a systematic approach method for identifying and selecting technologies adapted to operational Telecom application in a shorter time than in the past.

How to transform innovative battery opportunities in field operational solutions for Telecom/IT

Mobile network traffic is increasing and so is the energy consumption. The Radio Access Network (RAN) part is responsible for the largest share of the mobile network energy consumption, and thus; an important consideration when expanding mobile networks to meet traffic demands. This work analyses how the energy consumption of future mobile networks can be minimised by using the right RAN architecture, share the network with other operators and implementing the most efficient energy minimising technologies in the RAN. It is explored how the different approaches can be realised in real life networks as well as the research state of the art is highlighted. Furthermore, this work provides an overview of future research directions for 6G energy saving potentials. Different energy saving contributions are evaluated by a common methodology for more realistic comparison, based on the potential energy saving of the overall mobile network consumption. Results show that implementing selected technologies and architectures, the mobile network overall energy consumption can be reduced by approximately 30%, corresponding to almost half of the RAN energy consumption. Following this, a set of guidelines towards an energy optimised mobile network is provided, proposing changes to be made initially and in the longer run for brownfield network operators as well as a target network for greenfield network operators.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/ielx7/8782661/8901158/10076806.pdf

Toward Greener 5G and Beyond Radio Access Networks—A Survey

Today, mobile networks are witnessing an exponential growth of traffic volumes, linked to new services, especially for smart cities and smart-grid. The European Celtic-Plus SooGREEN project, started mid 2015, is targeting to reduce the energy consumption of the services in different mobile architectures in interaction with smart-grid. So GREEN is focused on the services energy consumption modelling and measurement, the dynamic optimization of the mobile access network and of the content delivery, the design of an Energy Efficient Virtualized and Centralized Radio Access Network (RAN), and the bi-directional interaction of the mobile network with the smart-grid. This paper presents insight into the project after its first year, and discusses research trends in green communication networks for the future.

X. Campderros

Papers

SooGREEN: Service-oriented optimization of green mobile networks