2020/02/06 by Pradnya Kiri Taksande, Pranav Jha, Taksande, Pradnya Kiri +5
Computer Science · Engineering · #Advanced MIMO Systems Optimization #Cooperative Communication and Network Coding #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI) #Software-Defined Networks and 5G
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2002.06256
openalex publication_date 2020/02/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Mobile Networks today comprise of multiple Radio Access Technologies (RATs),≠.g., 4G LTE, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and the upcoming 5G-New Radio\n(5G-NR). The access networks of these RATs are controlled by RAT-specific\nentities, e.g., the resource management function located inside an individual\nLTE eNB is used for the eNB control, or access controllers are used for\ncontrolling WLAN Access Points. Even in the 3GPP's 5G architecture, which has a\ncommon Core supporting multiple RATs, radio access related decisions are taken\nindependently within individual RATs. Due to the fragmented nature of\ncontrol-plane in multi-RAT Radio Access Network (RAN), a unified global view of\nnetwork resources is unavailable, hindering optimized allocation of resources.\nIt also brings complexity to the features involving multiple RATs, e.g., dual\nconnectivity. To address these issues, we introduced an SDN-based Multi-RAT RAN\narchitecture (SMRAN) in our earlier work [arXiv:1812.11825], where the RAN\ncontrol-plane is segregated from the data-plane. As part of the SMRAN\narchitecture, we defined a logically centralized multi-RAT RAN Controller and\nindividual RAT-specific data-plane functions. In the current work, we define a\nprotocol, called Open5G, to be used for control and management of the SMRAN\ndata-plane. Open5G is based on OpenFlow (OF) and OF-Config, which are commonly\nused protocols in the SDN-based wired networks and data centers.\n