End-to-End Network Slicing in Radio Access Network, Transport Network and Core Network Domains

Network slicing (NS) has been well discussed in the transport network (TN) and core network (CN) domains. This paper extends it to the radio access network (RAN) domain, and the NS in RAN, TN and CN domains is defined as end-to-end (E2E) NS system. The advantages of using NS in the RAN domain with two-level resource allocation scheme are studied and shown by numerical simulations. Then the E2E NS system architecture and components are proposed and demonstrated with hardware and software. The demonstration shows the capability with very fine spectral granularity, and the slice creation, delete and adjustment schemes in sub-minute time, which could be used in the operator’s network.