The Reconfigurable Mobile Network

The evolution of the network architecture has been stagnant in recent time. Although cellular network architecture evolves at a faster pace to cope with rising traffic demands, it requires high CAPEX/OPEX in order to deploy new systems. Due to decreasing revenue per bit in any network servicing scenario, deploying a new network architecture is very expensive, and band-aid solutions are becoming insufficient. As such, infrastructure sharing solutions become very attractive for network operators. In this paper, we propose a new reconfigurable mobile network (RMN) architecture designed for flexibility and reconfigurability. We focus on cellular mobile networks as a superset of fixed and mobile networks. We explain the main features of our concept as an evolution to current network sharing mechanisms using network virtualization technologies. In particular, we address technologies allowing combined control for network, radio and IT infrastructure, isolation between coexisting networks and the support for customized networks. We propose a unified control plane to oversee the sharing from multiple operators, and present open issues and challenges to realize such a large scale, yet flexible network architecture for the future.