Orchestration of RAN and Transport Networks for 5G: An SDN Approach

The fifth generation of mobile networks is planned to be commercially available in a few years. The scope of 5G goes beyond introducing new radio interfaces, and will include new services like low-latency industrial applications, as well as new deployment models such as cooperative cells and densification through small cells. An efficient realization of these new features greatly benefit from tight coordination among radio and transport network resources, something that is missing in current networks. In this article, we first present an overview of the benefits and technical requirements of resource coordination across radio and transport networks in the context of 5G. Then, we discuss how SDN principles can bring programmability to both the transport and radio domains, which in turn enables the design of a hierarchical, modular, and programmable control and orchestration plane across the domains. Finally, we introduce two use cases of SDN-based transport and RAN orchestration, and present an experimental implementation of them in a testbed in our lab, which confirms the feasibility and benefits of the proposed orchestration.