A Novel SDN-Based Architecture to Provide Synchronization as a Service in 5G Scenarios

Moving toward 5G, network synchronization is expected to play a key role in the successful deployment of the new mobile communication networks. This article presents an application of SDN (software defined networking) and NFV (network function virtualization) principles to the network synchronization area, making it possible to offer synchronization as a service. The approach is based on defining a harmonization layer that orchestrates radio and heterogeneous transport domains by means of a suitable subset of abstracted information exchanged among the domains, and by making use of virtualized synchronization functions.