Framework for Generic Design of Massive IoT Slice in 5G

5G Networks are expected to deliver wide range of services to support communication between smartphone devices, machines, drones and tiny sensors. Network transformation has been envisaged as a panacea to support such diverse requirements. 5G network has been designed in an all-encompassing manner to rapidly deploy customized services to cater the needs of multiple vertical industries. The pivotal part of the transformation is Network Slicing technology. Network slicing facilitates golden triangle of use cases comprising ultra-low latency, massive Internet of Things (IoT) and enhanced broadband segments. In the slicing paradigm, physical network has been partitioned into multiple logical networks to effectively realise multi-tenancy through shared virtualized network infrastructure. In this paper, the blueprint of slice design has been addressed to support massive IoT (mIoT) slice. Recent research trends have been witnessing multitude of technologies and algorithms related to the network slicing. By carefully extracting relevant cutting-edge techniques from the current emerging research landscape, the paper highlights candidate set of enablers to help Service Providers (SPs) build a tool-box for network slice design for mIoT use case. The combination of infrastructure moving towards virtualized data centers, controlled by Software Defined Network (SDN) principles, splitting the virtualized Radio Access Network (RAN), control plane and user plane separation and lightweight resource management have been addressed here. Selected building-blocks have been gleaned and summarized to provide useful insight into the overall framework of network slice design for mIoT.