Wireless network virtualization: The CONTENT project approach

Abstract

Undoubtedly, SDN has the potential to fundamentally change the way end-to-end networks are provisioned and designed. By introducing programmability into networking, the handling of network changes and network provisioning via open software interfaces has become a reality; together with the hardware/software virtualization advances in server systems and software platforms, cloud services can now be rapidly deployed and efficiently managed. The CONTENT project is an EU funded effort for network and infrastructure virtualization over heterogeneous, wireless and metro optical networks, that can be used to provide end-to-end cloud services. In this work we present the wireless network virtualization solution, in the light of the CONTENT technical approach, where a convergent LTE/Wi-Fi network is virtualized and interconnected with an optical TSON metro network. We present our approach in designing and implementing converged virtual 802.11 and LTE wireless networks and the corresponding efficient wireless data-plane mechanisms required, in order to satisfy strict QoS requirements. © 2014 IEEE.