The Role of Centralized SON in RAN Sharing

5G Network
Sayed Chhattan Shah

Department of Information Communications Engineering
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Korea
www.mgclab.com
Acknowledgements
 5G White Paper by NGMN Alliance
 View on 5G Architecture by 5G PPP Architecture Working Group
 SK 5G Architecture Design and Implementation Guidelines
 Huawei 5G Network Architecture: A High-Level Perspective
 A Flexible Network Architecture for QoE aware Communications in 5G Systems

Contents
 Background
 Use cases
 Requirements
 Design principles
 Architectures
 Technology
5G Network
LTE Architecture
Evolved Universal Terrestrial Evolved Packet Core

Radio Access Network
LTE Architecture
LTE Architecture
LTE Architecture
 Evolved Radio Access Network
o It mainly consists of a single RAN node named as eNodeB
o The eNB interfaces with the User Equipment
o eNodeBs use the X2 interface to communicate with each other
o eNB functions
 Radio Resource Management
 Modulates and demodulates radio signals to communicate with UE
 IP header compression and encryption of user data stream
 Routing of User Plane data towards Serving Gateway
 Scheduling and transmission of paging messages

LTE Architecture
 Evolved Packet Core
o Routing and computing brain of the LTE network
o Serving Gateway
 Acts as a router and forwards data between eNB and P-GW
 Each mobile is assigned to a single S-GW but the S-GW can be

changed if the mobile moves sufficiently far
 Performs as the mobility anchor for the user plane during

inter-eNB handovers and as the anchor for mobility between
LTE and other 3GPP technologies
LTE Architecture
o Mobility Management Entity
 Primary network signaling node that does not interact with user traffic
 Large variation in functionality including managing UE contexts,

creating temporary ID, sending pages, controlling authentication
functions, and selecting the S-GW and P-GWs
o Packet Data Network Gateway
 Allocates IP addresses, routes packets, and interconnects with non-

3GPP networks
 Each mobile is assigned to a default P-GW when it first switches on, to

give it always-on connectivity to a default PDN such as Internet
LTE Architecture
o Home Subscriber Server
 Master database with subscriber data
o Authentication Center
 Resides within the HSS
o Policy and Charging Rules Function
 Rules and policies related to quality of service, charging, and

access to network resources
LTE Architecture
Detailed comparison of wireless generations
5G Network
5G Network
5G use case families and related examples

5G Network
 Broadband Access in Dense Areas
o The focus is service availability in densely-populated areas such

as multi story buildings and dense urban city centers with 1000s
people per square km
 Augmented reality, multi-user interaction, three-dimensional

services
 Collaboration in 3D cyber-real offices or operating rooms
 These applications will require a high date rate and low latency
5G Network
 Broadband Access Everywhere
o Need to provide access to broadband service everywhere, from

urban to suburban and rural areas
o A consistent user experience with respect to throughput needs a

minimum data rate guaranteed everywhere
5G Network
 Higher User Mobility
o Beyond 2020, there will be a growing demand for mobile

services in vehicles, trains and even aircrafts
 High Speed Train
• Providing a satisfactory service to the passengers at a speed of 500

kmph may be a great challenge
 Remote Computing
• Requires very low latencies with robust communication links together

with availability close to 100%
 Moving Hot Spots

5G Network
 Massive Internet of Things
o Smart Wearables
 A number of ultra-light, low power, waterproof sensors will be

integrated in people’s clothing
 These sensors can measure various environmental and health

attributes
 Overall management of the number of devices as well as the data

and applications associated with these devices
o Sensor Networks
o Mobile Automated Video Surveillance

5G Network
 Extreme Real-Time Communications
o Use cases which have a strong demand in terms of real-time

interaction
o May require one or more attributes such as extremely high

throughput, mobility, critical reliability
 Autonomous driving
 Tactile Internet
• Humans will wirelessly control real and virtual objects

5G Network
 Lifeline Communication
o Public safety and emergency services
 Require a very high level of availability in addition to the ability to

support traffic surges
 Ultra-reliable Communications
o Automated Traffic Control and Driving
o eHealth: Extreme Life Critical
o Remote Object Manipulation: Remote Surgery

5G Network
 Broadcast-like Services
o News and Information

5G Requirements
The 5G requirements are from potential use cases and business models
5G Requirements
5G Requirements
 5G use cases demand very diverse and sometimes extreme

requirements
 User Experience
o User experience requirements address the end user’s

experience when consuming one or more services
 A consistent user experience over time for a given service

everywhere the service is offered
 User experienced data rate and latency
 Mobility
• Seamless service experience to users that are moving

5G Requirements
5G Requirements
 System Performance
o System performance requirements define the system capabilities

needed to satisfy the variety and variability of users and use
cases
 Up to several hundred thousand simultaneous active

connections per square kilometer shall be supported for
massive sensor deployments
 Data rates of several tens of Mbps should be supported for

tens of thousands of users in crowded areas
5G Requirements
5G Requirements
 Device Requirements
o Operator control capabilities on devices
 high degree of programmability and configurability by the network
 network operator may choose one of the profiles depending on QoS

needs, radio node capability or radio conditions
o To enable true global roaming capability, smart devices should

be able to support multiple bands as well as multiple modes
o Battery life shall be significantly increased

5G Requirements
 Enhanced Services
o Enhanced services will be characterized by a high level of

security, experience and features
 Connectivity transparency is a key requirement for delivering

consistent experience in a highly heterogeneous environment
• A terminal may be connected to several radio access technologies
 Security
 High availability and reliability

5G Design Principles
Given the requirements and considering emerging technology trends, the 5G system
should be designed based on the design principles illustrated in following Figure

 Radio
o Higher frequencies such and license-exempt spectrum should be

exploited
o Simultaneous connections to multiple access points need to be

supported
o RF capabilities of devices must be improved to take full

advantage of different spectrum opportunities
 Radio
o With extreme densification, cell planning and coordinated

deployment will become increasingly difficult
o Enhanced multi-layer and multi-RAT coordination, as well as

dynamic and fast switching between frequencies, cells, beams
and RATs are necessary to ensure seamless user experience
while mobile in such dense deployments
o Support dynamic radio topology
 Devices should be connected through topologies that minimize battery

consumption and signaling, without limiting their visibility and reachability by the
network
 Core Network and Operations
o Network and device functions and RAT configuration should be

tailored for each use case
o Network should support flexible composition of network functions
o 5G should make it possible to exploit the network to quickly and

efficiently create new value added services and explore different
business models and opportunities
o Build in security and privacy

5G Architecture
5G Architecture
 The infrastructure resource layer
o Physical resources of a fixed-mobile converged network,

comprising access nodes, cloud nodes, 5G devices, networking
nodes and associated links
o 5G devices may have multiple configurable capabilities and may

act as a relay or a computing and storage resource
5G Architecture
 The business enablement layer
o A library of all functions required within a converged network in

the form of modular architecture building blocks, including
functions realized by software modules that can be retrieved
from the repository to the desired location, and a set of
configuration parameters for certain parts of the network
o The functions and capabilities are called upon request by the

orchestration entity, through relevant APIs
5G Architecture
 The business application layer
o Includes specific applications and services of the operator,

enterprise, verticals or third parties that utilize the 5G network
o The interface to the end-to-end management and orchestration

entity allows, for example, to build dedicated network slices for
an application
5G Architecture
 The E2E management and orchestration entity
o It is a contact point to translate the use cases and business

models into actual network functions and slices
o It defines the network slices for a given application scenario,

chains the relevant modular network functions, assigns the
relevant performance configurations, and finally maps all of this
onto the infrastructure resources
5G Architecture
 Network Slicing
o A network or 5G slice is composed of a collection of 5G network

functions and specific RAT settings that are combined together
for the specific use case or business model
o The intention of a 5G slice is to provide only the traffic treatment

that is necessary for the use case, and avoid all other
unnecessary functionality
5G Architecture
5G Architecture
 The use of both dedicated infrastructure resources for certain slices,

as well as the use of shared infrastructure resources and functions
between multiple slices is needed
o A 5G slice for typical smartphone use can be realized by setting

fully-fledged functions distributed across the network
o Security, reliability and latency will be critical for a 5G slice

supporting automotive use case
o For a 5G slice supporting massive machine type devices, some

basic C-plane functions can be configured, omitting any mobility
functions, with contention-based resources for the access
5G Technology GAP Analysis
5G Technology Options
 Use of higher frequency bands
o The air interface defined by 3GPP for 5G is known as New

Radio and the specification is subdivided into two frequency
bands
 Frequency range 1 (< 6 GHz)
• The maximum channel bandwidth defined for FR1 is 100 MHz
 Frequency range 2 (24–86 GHz)
• The maximum channel bandwidth defined for FR2 is 400 MHz
• The maximum rate is approximately 40 Gbps

 Flexible use of licensed spectrum
o Finer frequency granularity support to exploit any spare spectrum
o Carrier aggregation to benefit from any spare MHz
 Integrated license-exempt spectrum
o Integrated use of license-exempt spectrum to improve end-user QoE
 Use of 3GPP RATs in license-exempt spectrum, tighter integration of 3GPP

RATs with local area technologies that use license-exempt spectrum
• Wi-Fi and 3GPP proposal from Intel

 Massive MIMO and enhanced multi-antenna schemes

 In massive MIMO systems, the transmitter and receiver are
equipped with a large number of antenna elements
 Massive MIMO improves spectral efficiency
 Interference coordination
o To avoid interference via information exchange between schedulers on
network side
 Technologies for small packet transmissions

o There is a wide variety of small packets transmission schemes with
different QoE for both M2M and H2H
 UE-centric network
o The use of smarter devices could impact the radio access network. In
particular, both D2D and smart caching call for an architectural
redefinition where the center of gravity moves from the network core to
the periphery
o RAN virtualization will lead to a decoupling between a node and the

hardware allocated to handle the processing associated with this node.
Hardware resources in a pool, for instance, could be dynamically
allocated to different nodes depending on metrics defined by the
network operators
o Need to move from cell-centric architecture into a device-centric one

 Densification of the network via deployment of small cells
o Capacity increase
 Dual Connectivity
o A user terminal can be associated to two different base stations for

uplink and downlink, respectively
o This is suitable in HetNets, where there are noticeable asymmetries

between cells of different sizes.
o Terminal transmission power can be backed off if associated to a small

cell placed in physical proximity
o Support for transmission power control mechanism

 Dual Connectivity Challenges
o A user terminal can be associated to two different base stations for

uplink and downlink, respectively.
o User identification, UL power control, coordination of traffic flows across

different paths, UE complexity
 Enhanced multi-RAT coordination
o Multi-connection and Multi-transmission
o RAN functionality evolution including data cache, smart service and

contents distribution and aggregation, etc.
 Device-to-Device communications
o This can be an opportunity for future cellular systems to enhance their

performance in terms of: Network off-loading, spectral efficiency,
throughput, fairness, coverage extension, latency and power-saving.
o In addition, it gives the possibility of carrying out emergency calls in out

of coverage areas.
 Software-Defined Networking
o Programmable network with centralized logically abstracted control
 Smart Edge Node
o A node at the edge of the network can actively carry out some of the
core network functionalities or additional services
 Traffic Optimization
o Intelligently choosing the transmission path and last mile based on

attributes of the end-device, available access technologies at the end-
device’s location and status of network
 Enhanced multi-operator network sharing
o Enable sharing between two or more operators at all levels within a

heterogeneous network potentially administered by multiple different
organizations
o Shared elements can include infrastructure, spectrum, BTS backhaul,

site equipment, and antennas.
 Lowers cost to provide coverage and capacity.
o Creates perception of universal access to end user, with consistent

experience across different organizations
 All optical transport network with optical router and switch
o High bandwidth with very low energy consumption. Have the potential to
accommodate future traffic growth and reduce the high energy
consumption typical in conventional routers
5G Network
 IEEE 802.11ac, 802.11ad and 802.11af standards are

very helpful and act as a building blocks in the road
towards 5G
5G Network
5G Cellular Network Architecture II
 Infrastructure plane
o It represents the physical and virtual hardware in the network
o It consists of
 Wireless Transmission Points that use radio resources to transmit signals
 Network nodes that provide computing resources
 Interconnecting links that provide connectivity between nodes
 Hypervisors that virtualize these resources.
o Infrastructure plane supports multiple Infrastructure Providers

 Data plane
o It is responsible for forwarding user data between end-points
 It does not contain any control functions or carry control traffic
o Connectivity between the end-points is realized as a chain of network

functions deployed on physical or virtual devices
 Network functions include RF front-end in order to transmit or receive signals

to or from UE over the wireless channel
 Control plane
o It is responsible for network control and performance optimization
o Common examples of control functions include

 Mobility management to associate UE to a particular cell
 Paging to notify inactive UEs about incoming flows
 Scheduling to allocate resource blocks to different UEs
 Link adaptation
 Power control
 System measurements and reporting
o Based on the decisions made by the control plane functions, the data
plane functions at different layers of the protocol stack process data
packets
 Management and Orchestration framework
o The MANO framework is shared between the Infrastructure Providers

and Service Providers
o It is primarily tasked with the management of virtualized infrastructure,

orchestration of network services, and the lifecycle management of
VNFs
A 5G Cellular Network Architecture III
5G Cellular Network Architecture III
 Device controller is responsible for the device physical layer

connectivity to the 5G network
 The Edge Controller implements the 5G network C‐Plane, including

network access control, packet routing and transfer, mobility and
connection management, security, QoS and radio resource
management functions
o The implementation of the EC is distributed over the cloud infrastructure

via a set of interconnected control applications
 The Orchestration Controller coordinates the utilization of cloud

resources. It is responsible for the allocation and maintenance of
resources required to instantiate both 5G control and data planes
5G Cellular Network Architecture III
 5G Data Plane
o During network attachment, an address is allocated to the device
o A last hop routing element (LHRE) and a network entry point (NEP) is
associated to it and then, a forwarding path is established, to allow
packets generated by the device to be routed from the LHRE to the
NEP
A 5G Cellular Network Architecture IV
5G Cellular Network Architecture IV
 In present wireless cellular architecture, for a mobile user to

communicate whether inside or outside, an outside base
station present in the middle of a cell helps in communication
o This may result in very high penetration loss, which

correspondingly costs with reduced spectral efficiency, data rate,
and energy efficiency of wireless communications
 To overcome the challenge, distinct outside and inside setups

5G Cellular Network Architecture IV
 Every building will be installed with large antenna arrays from

outside, to communicate with outdoor base stations with the help of
line of sight components.
 For indoor communication, certain technologies like Wi-Fi, small

cell, ultra wideband, millimeter wave communications, and visible
light communications are useful for small range communications
having large data rates
 Since the 5G cellular architecture is heterogeneous, so it must

include macrocells, microcells, small cells, and relays
SK 5G Cellular Network Architecture
 Innovative Services
o It includes innovative 5G Services
 Enabling Platform
o It is the middle layer that creates meaningful and service-centric values

to support the upper innovative service layer
o It utilizes two key enablers to perform this task
 Network Functions Virtualization and Software Defined Networking which

makes the network much more dynamic, agile, and flexible
 A well-defined set of Application Programming Interfaces which offers the

ability to automate and orchestrate the network
 Hyper-Connected Radio
o Deliver massive amount of data to the Enabling Platform layer in a very

efficient and seamless manner
o This layer will include the not only the existing radio network
technologies but also new novel radio network technologies
 SK believes there will eventually be two types of clouds in 5G
o Cloud radio-access networks
o Cloud core networks
o With NFV it is anticipated that most mobility network functions will be

virtualized for flexibility and efficiency
o With SDN the control plane functions will further be separated from the
data plane functions for consistency and agility
o The virtualized and de-coupled functions will then be placed and run
appropriately in the two cloud types
o Cloud radio-access networks
 aims to transform the RAN to be flexible, scalable and service-agile by

taking advantage of evolving IT virtualization and cloud computing
technologies
o Cloud core networks
 In LTE all data plane traffic must go through a single node type
called Packet Data Network Gateway
 It could potentially pose a severe limitation when there is a huge

amount of backhaul traffics in 5G

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5G Network

Sayed Chhattan Shah

 5G White Paper by NGMN Alliance

 View on 5G Architecture by 5G PPP Architecture Working Group

 SK 5G Architecture Design and Implementation Guidelines

 Huawei 5G Network Architecture: A High-Level Perspective

 A Flexible Network Architecture for QoE aware Communications in 5G Systems

Evolved Universal Terrestrial Evolved Packet Core

 Evolved Radio Access Network

o It mainly consists of a single RAN node named as eNodeB

o The eNB interfaces with the User Equipment

o eNodeBs use the X2 interface to communicate with each other

 Radio Resource Management

 Modulates and demodulates radio signals to communicate with UE

 IP header compression and encryption of user data stream

 Routing of User Plane data towards Serving Gateway

 Scheduling and transmission of paging messages

 Evolved Packet Core

o Routing and computing brain of the LTE network

 Acts as a router and forwards data between eNB and P-GW

 Each mobile is assigned to a single S-GW but the S-GW can be

 Performs as the mobility anchor for the user plane during

 Evolved Packet Core

o Mobility Management Entity

 Large variation in functionality including managing UE contexts,

o Packet Data Network Gateway

 Allocates IP addresses, routes packets, and interconnects with non-

 Each mobile is assigned to a default P-GW when it first switches on, to

 Evolved Packet Core

o Home Subscriber Server

 Master database with subscriber data

 Resides within the HSS

o Policy and Charging Rules Function

 Rules and policies related to quality of service, charging, and

5G use case families and related examples

 Broadband Access in Dense Areas

o The focus is service availability in densely-populated areas such

 Augmented reality, multi-user interaction, three-dimensional

 Collaboration in 3D cyber-real offices or operating rooms

 Broadband Access Everywhere

o Need to provide access to broadband service everywhere, from

o A consistent user experience with respect to throughput needs a

 Higher User Mobility

o Beyond 2020, there will be a growing demand for mobile

 High Speed Train

• Providing a satisfactory service to the passengers at a speed of 500

• Requires very low latencies with robust communication links together

 Moving Hot Spots

 Massive Internet of Things

 A number of ultra-light, low power, waterproof sensors will be

 These sensors can measure various environmental and health

 Overall management of the number of devices as well as the data

o Mobile Automated Video Surveillance

 Extreme Real-Time Communications

o Use cases which have a strong demand in terms of real-time

o May require one or more attributes such as extremely high

• Humans will wirelessly control real and virtual objects

o Public safety and emergency services

 Require a very high level of availability in addition to the ability to

o Automated Traffic Control and Driving

o eHealth: Extreme Life Critical

o Remote Object Manipulation: Remote Surgery

o News and Information

 5G use cases demand very diverse and sometimes extreme