Using small cells for enhancing 5G network facilities

The 5G ESSENCE project context is based on the concept of Edge cloud computing and Small Cell-as-a-Service (SCaaS) and further “promotes” their role and/or influences within the related 5G vertical markets. 5G ESSENCE's core innovation is focused upon the development/provision of a highly flexible and scalable platform, offering benefits to the involved market actors. The present work identifies a variety of challenges to be fulfilled by the 5G ESSENCE in the scope of an enhanced architectural framework. The proposed technical approach exploits the profits of the centralisation of Small Cell functions as scale grows through an edge cloud environment based on a two-tier architecture with the first distributed tier being for offering low latency services and the second centralised tier being for the provision of high processing power for computing-intensive network applications. This permits decoupling the control and user planes of the Radio Access Network (RAN) and achieving the advantages of Cloud-RAN without the enormous fronthaul latency restrictions. The use of end-to-end network slicing mechanisms allows for sharing the related infrastructure among multiple operators/vertical industries and customizing its capabilities on a per-tenant basis, creating a neutral host market and reducing operational costs.