Flexible RAN Slicing for Mobile Wireless Networks

Enforcing network slice isolation in 5G Radio Access Networks (RANs) can degrade a network slicing solution’s ability to efficiently support different types of traffic. In addition, competing virtual network operators may share one network infrastructure that forces network slicing solutions to provide fair treatment between them. This work presents Flexible Priority Scheduling (FPS). This RAN network slicing solution provides isolated treatment to slices with different traffic types, further exploring their needs and flexibility to achieve a more efficient solution. It does so by defining a contract interface that allows a flexible representation of different types of traffic, from heavy throughput services to low latency and bursty traffic. Furthermore, the presented contract representation allows a fair treatment of the tenant’s traffic in the Medium Access Control (MAC) scheduler that enforces this slicing solution: Priority Adaptation Slice Scheduler (PASS).