Latency evaluation of a virtualized MME

Network Virtualization is one of the key technologies for developing the future mobile networks. In this paper we propose an LTE virtualized Mobility Management Entity queue model to evaluate its service time for a given signaling workload. Additionally, we provide a compound data traffic model for the future mobile applications, and we predict theoretically the control workload that it will generate. Finally, we evaluate the virtualized Mobility Management Entity overall mean delay by simulation, providing insights for selecting the number of processing instances for a given number of users.