A Concept for Network Slicing in Wireless Mesh Networks

Network slicing is a key technology for 5G and future mobile networks. It enables the creation of different virtual networks on the same physical infrastructure. By applying network slicing to Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs), it’s possible to provide communication infrastructure in a quick and less complicated way. This article shows an approach based on an evolutionary algorithm connecting multiple WMN nodes to a slice. The WMN is modeled as an undirected graph to get a data structure for the algorithm. A set of simulations with the NS3 Simulator was done to verify the model’s assumptions. The paper then introduces our concept for network slicing in wireless mesh networks. It then explains how evolutionary algorithms are used in this approach. The proposed algorithm was tested based on a modeled network. It shows which number of nodes to connect the algorithm outperforms a brute force approach and how the algorithm works with more significant network instances. The evolutionary algorithm is then compared to two other optimization approaches for this problem. These are the Simulated Annealing and Ant Colonization Optimization algorithms.