Resource Allocation for Heterogeneous Traffic in LTE Virtual Networks

Cellular network virtualization is being considered as a key trend in future mobile networks towards improved resource utilization. However, virtualization scenarios need investigation to understand the considerations which should be taken into account when deploying virtualized wireless networks in practice. Towards this, we address the performance of a virtualized network in the presence of heterogeneous classes of traffic. In previous cellular network virtualization literature, both Real time (RT) and Non-Real time (NRT) traffic requests have been included without distinction. Both types are provisioned using the same algorithm for allocation of resources specified by the Network Scheduler [1]. However, different types of traffic have different characteristics [2], e.g., RT requests are delay sensitive but may need fixed bandwidth, and hence should be treated differently, especially when wireless channel conditions are factored into the scheduling. We recognize this difference and in this paper, we propose a new approach to improve scheduling of resources for RT and NRT traffic. In particular, we prioritize the traffic belonging to different virtual slices from all service providers (SP/VEs) at the Network Scheduler before allocating resources to different SP/VEs, i.e., We form a Virtual Prioritized Slice (VPS). The virtual prioritized slice is forwarded to the VPS scheduler to serve all RT requests first. Only after the RT traffic is scheduled, the NRT traffic is provisioned using proportional fairness (PF) scheduling. We show by simulation results that this new VPS approach helps outperform recently proposed resource allocation schemes.