Virtualized authentication, authorization and accounting (V-AAA) in 5G networks

Virtualization, containerization and softwarization technologies enable telecommunication systems to realize multitenancy, multi-network slicing and multi-level services. However, the use of these technologies to such ends requires a redesign of the telecommunications network architecture that goes beyond the current long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A). This paper proposes a novel hierarchical and distributed Virtualized Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (V-AAA) architecture for fifth-generation (5G) telecommunications systems, conceived to handle multi-tenancy, multi-network slicing and multi-level services. It also contemplates a new hierarchical and distributed database architecture to inter-work with our 5G V-AAA, able to cope with the network flexibility, elasticity and traffic fluctuation implied in 5G. The sum achievement is the design of a new approach that can provide fast billing and multiple network services for authentication and authorization at the edge cloud.