Load balancing in LTE core networks using SDN

Current LTE networks use traditional load balancing algorithms to distribute traffic load among core network user plane nodes to access external data networks. Some of these methods are very effective regarding the choice of gateways, but introduce high overhead in terms of signaling between the UE, MME, and the P-GW. The objective of this paper is to take advantage of a new SDN-based core architecture to perform SDN flow-based load balancing. The experimental results show that our application successfully balances the traffic between the nodes which preserved the high throughput and decreased latency among the new network nodes.