Wireless virtualized network deployment strategies

自2012年秋季以来，随着各种行业呼吁采取行动，电信网络功能的虚拟化近年来引起了极大的研究兴趣。因此，网络功能虚拟化(NFV)已成为在大规模通信时代适当扩展基础设施和促进提供广泛多样的终端用户服务的一项关键技术。因此，通过共享网络资源，NFV可以提供多种好处，包括优化资本和运营成本、缩短新的差异化服务的上市时间以及虚拟运营商商业模式的开放性。流量增长一直并将继续对正在成为终端用户主要接入模式的无线网络施加特别的压力。在这种情况下，异类无线网络(HetNets)可以受益于上述虚拟化的所有好处以及无线频谱的共享接入，这可以缓解长期存在的频谱僵化问题。由于无线网络的虚拟化是一个相当新的趋势，因此，研究计划的目标是确定最佳的虚拟化无线网络基础设施部署策略以及相应的服务提供方法。作为长期的补充目标，并结合软件定义网络(SDN)，该研究计划寻求为端到端可编程的、基于云的、虚拟化的无线和有线网络得出一套广泛的设计原则。在未来五年内，5G网络预计将从概念进入商业部署。这将构成信息和通信技术(信通技术)行业的重大范式转变的实施，不仅在网络基础设施的形式方面，而且在运营商的价值链和商业模式以及信通技术现在将能够更充分地利用的无数垂直市场方面。这些领域涉及交通、农业、先进制造、能源、建筑、医疗保健等。随着以无线技术为主要接入方式的通信网络因此成为社会经济发展的基础设施，监管政策也极有可能受到影响，例如基于设施的完工、频谱拍卖等；这些都是需要解决的关键问题，例如，为了防止城乡之间的数字鸿沟演变为社会经济鸿沟。在这种情况下，在成本和性能方面适当部署虚拟无线网络对任何国家来说都是当务之急，例如加拿大，它寻求在几乎所有工业部门以及最终在各种形式的人类活动中利用ICT支持的转型所提供的21世纪机遇。

On the heels of various industry calls to action since the fall of 2012, virtualization of telecom network functions has generated significant research interest in recent years. Network function virtualization (NFV) has thus emerged as a key technology to properly scale infrastructure in the era of massive communications and to facilitate the provisioning of a broadly diverse set of end-user services. As such, through sharing of network resources, NFV can offer multiple benefits ranging from optimized capital and operational costs, reduced time to market for novel differentiated services and openness in terms of virtual operator business models.Traffic growth has been exerting, and will continue to exert, particular stress on wireless networks that are becoming the dominant mode of end-user access. In this context, heterogeneous wireless networks (HetNets) can benefit from all the aforementioned benefits of virtualization as well as from shared access to wireless spectrum, which can mitigate the long-standing spectrum ossification problem. As virtualization of wireless networks is a fairly recent trend, the objectives of the research program are thus to identify optimal virtualized wireless network infrastructure deployment strategies as well as corresponding approaches to service provisioning. As a longer-term complementary objective, and in conjunction with software-defined networking (SDN), the research program seeks to derive a broad set of design principles for end-to-end programmable, cloud-based, virtualized wireless and wired networks.Within the next five years, 5G networks are expected to move from concept to commercial deployment. This will constitute the implementation of a major paradigm shift for the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, not just in terms of the form of network infrastructure but also in terms of value chains and business models for operators as well as in the myriad of vertical markets that ICT will now be able to more fully tap. These involve transportation, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, energy, buildings, healthcare, etc. etc. As communication networks, with wireless technology as a dominant mode of access, thus become a fundamental enabling infrastructure for socio-economic development, regulatory policies are also highly likely to be impacted e.g. facilities-based completion, spectrum auctions, etc.; these are critical issues to address e.g. in order to prevent a digital divide between urban and rural areas to morph into a socio-economic divide. In this context, properly deploying virtualized wireless networks, cost and performance-wise, becomes an imperative for any country, such as Canada, which seeks to leverage 21st century opportunities offered by ICT-enabled transformations in almost industrial sector and ultimately, in various forms of human activity.