Performance Analysis of Network Slicing in Packet-Switched 5G xHaul Access Network

We analyse the impact of Network Slicing (NS) on the performance of a packet-switched xHaul transport network carrying the radio data traffic in a 5G Radio Access Network (RAN). Two 5G services / slices of different requirements, namely, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) and Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), are considered. We focus on the network planning scenario, in which the radio processing resources and the data flows related to both NSs are subject to allocation in the xHaul network. Network optimization is performed by means of a scalable heuristic MaSCA-RA. The study reveals how the size and the bitrate of NSs affect the network performance in terms of the cost of involved processing resources.