vBS on the move: Migrating a virtual network for nomadic mobility in WiFi networks

This paper proposes a virtual network migration technique, namely “virtual Base Station (vBS) on the Move”, for continually providing the service-specific connectivity for nomadic terminals while the terminals move through a WiFi network. WiFi network virtualization is known as a key technology for controlling the connectivity of a target service, where a service-specific vBS is created around the terminals and assigned dedicated radio frequency resources. Different from network virtualization in wired networks, a virtual network in wireless access networks is particularly required to be built only at the locations where the target terminals exist for the purpose of better utilization of the radio frequency resources. However, WiFi essentially lacks the location management mechanism and it is still an open issue to dynamically configure the vBS on an on-demand basis, following terminals' nomadic mobility. vBS on the Move addresses this issue by introducing a new mobility management function in a WiFi network, which detects terminals' locations by centralized control of handling identical probe request packets at multiple physical Base Station (BS) around the terminals and preserves the vBS state for future reorganization. The function model, the principle of the vBS on the Move, and the experimental system using the proof-of-concept prototype of WiFi network virtualization are presented in this paper. The principle is confirmed by the experimental result.