Software Defined Networking Enabled Wireless Network Virtualization: Challenges and Solutions

Next generation (5G) wireless networks are expected to support the massive data and accommodate a wide range of services/use cases with distinct requirements in a cost-effective, flexible, and agile manner. As a promising solution, wireless network virtualization (WNV), or network slicing, enables multiple virtual networks to share the common infrastructure on demand, and to be customized for different services/use cases. This article focuses on network-wide resource allocation for realizing WNV. Specifically, the motivations, the enabling platforms, and the benefits of WNV, are first reviewed. Then, resource allocation for WNV along with the technical challenges is discussed. Afterwards, a software defined networking (SDN) enabled resource allocation framework is proposed to facilitate WNV, including the key procedures and the corresponding modeling approaches. Furthermore, a case study is provided as an example of resource allocation in WNV. Finally, some open research topics essential to WNV are discussed.