Cache peering in multi-tenant 5G networks

Building on the adoption of the Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) paradigms, 5G networks promise distinctive features including the capability to support multi-tenancy. Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) are expected to co-exist over the shared infrastructure, realizing their network functionality on top of virtualized resources. In this context, we observe the emerging opportunity for establishing synergies between co-located tenants of the infrastructure. In this work, motivated by the rapidly increasing mobile content delivery traffic, we focus on synergies in the form of cache peering relationships between co-located VNOs. Caches co-located within the same (micro-)data centers, benefit from content opportunistically cached at their peers, taking advantage of the shared nature of the infrastructure to reduce latencies and traffic overheads. In this paper, we take a close look at the management and orchestration requirements of the envisioned services, illustrating our on-going approach.