Mobility driven network slicing: an enabler of on demand mobility management for 5G

Abstract As different requirements on mobility support will be introduced by diversified communication scenarios in the fifth generation (5G), on demand mobility management is put forward to simplify signaling process, reduce terminal power consumption, improve network efficiency and so on. In order to enable on demand mobility management in 5G networks, a mobility driven network slicing (MDNS) was proposed, which takes individual mobility support requirements into account while customizing networks for different mobile services. Within the MDNS framework, the actual levels of required mobility support are determined by a mobility description system, and network slice templates with the corresponding mobility management schemes are defined by a network slice description function. By instantiating the network slices, each mobile terminal could be directed to the network slice with the most appropriate mobility management scheme. Based on this, a prototype was implemented to validate the feasibility of MDNS framework, i.e. creating multiple network slices with different mobility management schemes. In addition, the performance evaluation on average cost of processing a mobility event is conducted for the proposed MDNS framework and the long term evolution (LTE) system, and operating benefits are analyzed including efficiency and scalability.