On the configuration of radio resource management in a sliced RAN

Network slicing is a fundamental feature of 5G systems that facilitates the provision of particular system behaviours adapted to specific service/application domains on top of a common network infrastructure. A network slice is in general composed by a core network slice and a Radio Access Network (RAN) slice. The realization of RAN slices is particularly challenging because it requires configuring and operating traffic differentiation and protection mechanisms to simultaneously deliver multiple and diverse RAN behaviors over a given pool of radio resources. In this context, this paper proposes to characterize the behavior of a RAN slice through the specification of a set of control parameters that are used to dictate the operation of the packet scheduling function at Layer 2 and the radio admission control function at Layer 3. An evaluation of the suitability of these parameters for achieving efficient radio resource sharing and isolation between RAN slices is presented when configuring a network for supporting a slice with multiple enhanced Mobile BroadBand services and another slice for providing Mission Critical services. The analysis reveals the different impact of the Layer 3 and Layer 2 parameters for isolating services of different slices depending on whether they require guaranteed or non-guaranteed bit rates.