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Context, Issues, and Solutions towards 5G Network Migration of Nepal (CISNetMiN)
Abstract
Besides several challenges in technology migration, internet and telecom service providers world-wide have to come up with cost effective plan to migrate their existing legacy networks into next generation operable networks e.g. 5G network, Software-Defined Network, IPv6 network and many more. Smart future life can be imagined only with the development of smart infrastructure through which the smart services and applications can be run. Going beyond extant research focusing only in technological choices, we go an extra mile to conduct a techno-economic evaluation of network migration to 5G networks will be considered taking the challenges and opportunities in the context of Nepal.
Present status of the Telecom and ICT/Broadband coverage of Nepal will be presented first. Then, 5G network migration challenges and opportunities including world’s migration scenarios will be discussed. Considering the context of mobile evolution in Nepal, suitable services to address sustainability issues will be identified so that latest networking technologies and services will enable an important avenue in the Nepalese market to avoid digital divide and contributes to sustainable social development.
In this mixed method of study, first, the surveys are designed to collect necessary from the Nepalese ISP/Telcos service providers regarding the current operational status of existing 3/4G networks and identify challenges/issues for network migration. Second, a migration modeling approach via computer simulation using SEAMCAT and or other suitable emulators e.g. Mininet shall be applicable to reflect the situation for effective transition planning and roadmap development where related issues e.g. controller placement in SDN and 5G wireless communication including Wireless SDN, implementation challenges on 5G network slicing and Network Function Virtualization, cost modeling for migration implementation will be studied in detail to fulfill the objective defined and proper analysis with visualization of research studies will be carried out with publications of works in the highly ranked national and international journals.
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The 5G cellular network is no longer hype. Mobile network operators (MNO) around the world (e.g., Verizon and AT&T in the USA) started deploying 5G networks in mid-frequency bands (i.e., 3–6 GHz) with existing 4G cellular networks. The mid-frequency band can significantly boost the existing network performance additional spectrum (i.e., 50 MHz–100 MHz). However, the high-frequency bands (i.e., 24 GHz–100 GHz) can offer a wider spectrum (i.e., 400~800 MHz), which is needed to meet the ever-growing capacity demands, highest bitrates (~20 Gb/s), and lowest latencies. As we move to the higher frequency bands, the free space propagation loss increases significantly, which will limit the individual cell site radius to 100 m for the high-frequency band compared to several kilometers in 4G. Therefore, the MNOs will need to deploy hundreds of new small cells (e.g., 100 m cell radius) compared to one large cell site (e.g., Macrocell with several km in radius) to ensure 100% network coverage for the same area. It will be a big challenge for the MNOs to accurately plan and acquire these massive numbers of new cell site locations to provide uniform 5G coverage. This paper first describes the 5G coverage planning with a traditional three-sector cell. It then proposes an updated cell architecture with six sectors and an advanced antenna system that provides better 5G coverage. Finally, it describes the potential challenges of 5G network deployment with future research directions.
This paper studies a problem for seamless migration of legacy networks of Internet service providers to a software-defined networking (SDN)-based architecture along with the transition to the full adoption of the Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) connectivity. Migration of currently running legacy IPv4 networks into such new approaches requires either upgrades or replacement of existing networking devices and technologies that are actively operating. The joint migration to SDN and IPv6 network is considered to be vital in terms of migration cost optimization, skilled human resource management, and other critical factors. In this work, we first present the approaches of SDN and IPv6 migration in service providers' networks. Then, we present the common concerns of IPv6 and SDN migration with joint transition strategies so that the cost associated with joint migration is minimized to lower than that of the individual migration. For the incremental adoption of software-defined IPv6 (SoDIP6) network with optimum migration cost, a greedy algorithm is proposed based on optimal path and the customer priority. Simulation and empirical analysis show that a unified transition planning to SoDIP6 network results in lower migration cost.
The logical separation of the data plane and the control plane of the network device conceptually defined by software-defined networking (SDN) creates many opportunities to create smart networking with better efficiency for network management and operation. SDN implementation over telecommunications (Telcos) and Internet service provider (ISP) networks is a challenging issue due to the lack of a high maturity level of SDN-based standards and several other critical factors that are considered during the real-time migration of existing legacy IPv4 networks. Different migration approaches have been studied; however, none of them seem to be close to realizing implementation. This paper implements the SDN-IP and Open Network Operating System (ONOS) SDN controller to migrate legacy IPv4 networks to multi-domain software-defined IPv6 (SoDIP6) networks and experimentally evaluate the viability of joint network migration in the ISP networks. We present results using extensive simulations for the suitable placement of the master ONOS controller during network migration by considering minimum control path latency using optimal path routing and the breadth first router replacement (BFR) technique. Our empirical analysis and evaluations show that the identification of the median router to attach the master controller and router migration planning using BFR give better results for carrier-grade legacy networks' migration to SoDIP6 networks.
With the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, current networking world is suffering in terms of management and operations with lack of IPv4 addresses leading to issues like network address translation (NAT) proliferation , security and quality of services. Software-defined networking (SDN) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) are the new networking paradigms evolved to address related issues of legacy IPv4 networking. To adapt with global competitive environment and avoid all existing issues in legacy networking system, network service providers have to migrate their networks into IPv6 and SDN-enabled networks. But immediate transformations of existing network are not viable due to several factors like higher cost of migration, lack of technical human resources, lack of standards and protocols during transitions , and many more. In this paper, we present the migration analysis for proper decision making of network transition in terms of customer demand, traffic engineering, and organizational strength with operation expenditure for network migration using evolutionary gaming approach. Joint migration to SDN-enabled IPv6 network from game theoretic perspective is modeled and is validated using numerical results obtained from simulations. Our empirical analysis shows the evolutionary process of network migration while different internal and external factors in the organization affect the overall migration. Evolutionary game in migration planning is supportive in decision making for service providers to develop suitable strategy for their network migration. The proposed approach for migration decision making is mostly applicable to fairly sustained service providers who lack economics, regulation/policy, and resources strengths.
It is a promising way to successfully operate the fifth generation (5G) system with Internet of Things (IoT) in potential mmWave spectrum bands. This paper investigates the intelligent co-channel coexistence between the 5G IoT system and the fixed-satellite service (FSS) system at 40 GHz. The key issue, as identified, is the accurate estimation of interference based on mmWave propagation characteristics. Our simulation results reveal that interference from the 5G IoT system into the FSS ground stations can be kept below the protection threshold by considering different deployment parameters, such as antenna patterns, height of Earth station (ES), and separation distance.
5G has to fulfill the requirements of ultra-dense, scalable, and customizable networks such as IoT while increasing spectrum and energy efficiency. Given the diversity of envisaged applications and scenarios, one crucial property for 5G New Radio (NR) is flexibility: flexible UL/DL allocation, bandwidths, or scalable transmission time interval, and most importantly operation at different frequency bands. In particular, 5G should exploit the spectral opportunities in the unlicensed spectrum for expanding network capacity when and where needed. However, unlicensed bands pose the challenge of "coexisting networks", which mostly lack the means of communication for negotiation and coordination. This deficiency is further exacerbated by the heterogeneity, massive connectivity, and ubiquity of IoT systems and applications. Therefore, 5G needs to provide mechanisms to coexist and even converge in the unlicensed bands. In that regard, WiFi, as the most prominent wireless technology in the unlicensed bands, is both a key enabler for boosting 5G capacity and competitor of 5G cellular networks for the shared unlicensed spectrum. In this work, we describe spectrum sharing in 5G and present key coexistence solutions, mostly in the context of WiFi. We also highlight the role of machine learning which is envisaged to be critical for reaching coexistence and convergence goals by providing the necessary intelligence and adaptation mechanisms.
The fifth generation (5G) wireless network technology is to be standardized by 2020, where main goals are to improve capacity, reliability, and energy efficiency, while reducing latency and massively increasing connection density. An integral part of 5G is the capability to transmit touch perception type real-time communication empowered by applicable robotics and haptics equipment at the network edge. In this regard, we need drastic changes in network architecture including core and radio access network (RAN) for achieving end-to-end latency on the order of 1 ms. In this paper, we present a detailed survey on the emerging technologies to achieve low latency communications considering three different solution domains: RAN, core network, and caching. We also present a general overview of 5G cellular networks composed of software defined network (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), caching, and mobile edge computing (MEC) capable of meeting latency and other 5G requirements.
Despite 5G still being embryonic in its development, there is already a quest for evidence to support decision-making in government and industry. Although there is still considerable technological, economic and behavioural uncertainty, exploration of how the potential rollout may take place both spatially and temporally is required for effective policy formulation. Consequently, the cost, coverage and rollout implications of 5G networks across Britain are explored by extrapolating 4G LTE and LTE-Advanced characteristics for the period 2020–2030. We focus on ubiquitous ultrafast broadband of 50 Mbps and test the impact of annual capital intensity, infrastructure sharing and reducing the end-user speed in rural areas to either 10 or 30 Mbps. For the business-as-usual scenario we find that 90% of the population is covered with 5G by 2027, but coverage is unlikely to reach the final 10% due to exponentially increasing costs. Moreover, varying annual capital intensity or deploying a shared small cell network can greatly influence the time taken to reach the 90% threshold, with these changes mostly benefiting rural areas. Importantly, simply by integrating new and existing spectrum, a network capable of achieving 10 Mbps per rural user is possible, which is comparable to the UK's current fixed broadband Universal Service Obligation. We contribute to the literature by quantifying the effectiveness of the spatial and temporal rollout of 5G under different policy options.
Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) systems are typically composed of thousands of sensors that are powered by limited energy resources. To extend the networks longevity, clustering techniques have been introduced to enhance energy efficiency. This paper presents a survey on clustering over the last two decades. Existing protocols are analysed from a Quality of Service (QoS) perspective including three common objectives, those of energy efficiency, reliable communication and latency awareness. This review reveals that QoS aware clustering demands more attention. Furthermore, there is a need to clarify how to improve Quality of user Experience (QoE) through clustering. Understanding the users’ requirements is critical in intelligent systems for the purpose of enabling the ability of supporting diverse scenarios. User awareness or user oriented design is one remaining challenging problem in clustering. In additional, this paper discusses the potential challenges of implementing clustering schemes to Internet of Things (IoT) systems in 5G networks. We indicate that clustering techniques enhanced with smart network selection solutions could highly benefit the QoS and QoE in IoT. As the current studies for WSNs are conducted either in homogeneous or low level heterogeneous networks, they are not ideal or even not able to function in highly dynamic IoT systems with a large range of user scenarios. Moreover, when 5G is finally realised, the problem will become more complex than that in traditional simplified WSNs. Several challenges related to applying clustering techniques to IoT in 5G environment are presented and discussed.
5G technologies are a new paradigm strongly supported by the European Commission (EC) to overcome the challenges of next generation networks and aiming to tackle the novel and manifold business requirements of vertical sectors such as Industry 4.0, Smart Grids, Smart Cities, and eHealth. Extraordinarily high speeds and capacity, multi-tenancy, fixed and wireless access network convergence, self-X, unconventional resource virtualisation, on-demand service-oriented resource allocation and automated management of resources are only few examples of the complex demands that 5G aims to undertake. The accommodation of such features requires multipronged efforts in different network technology domains at various levels. In this paper, we investigate how the relative 5G network features challenge the current generation of access networks, both fixed and wireless, and data centres, from an end-to-end network service point of view. Furthermore, we provide some insights into how emerging technologies such as Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) and Software Defined Networks (SDN) can be utilized for the accommodation of the above mentioned features and realization of 5G networks. 1. INTRODUCTION The 5G promise of a complete networked society with unlimited access to information about anything for anyone demands key features beyond what the current 4G offers. Some of these features include support for new type of large number of devices, for very high mobile traffic volumes, integration of heterogeneous access technologies, ubiquitous access for users, much higher frequency reuse in wireless technologies, end-to-end network security, automated provisioning, configuration and management of a wide range of new network services, extreme reliability, ultra-low latency and high volume DC interconnects, etc. [1]. To deliver a viable solution meeting all 5G requirements, a substantial change on the network paradigm is inevitable. One of the main pillars of such revolution is the way that new network functions are entered to the value chain. Traditionally, such a process demands deployment of specialized devices with 'hard-wired' functionalities. It implies that any adaptation to the ever increasing and heterogeneous market requirements demands a huge investment to change/deploy hardware. Thanks to the advent of cloud computing, Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV), the idea of having general-purpose computing and storage assets at networks has been realized along with the virtualization of networks and network functions which enables the automation of network service provisioning and management. Given the virtualization of networks and network functions, the 5G features of multi-tenancy and end-to-end security becomes even more challenging. In terms of multi-tenancy, the challenge remain how the isolation among different tenants, utilizing virtual networks on top of possibly the same physical infrastructure, can be ensured at all levels. For ensuring end-to-end security in 5G networks, a holistic approach is required which takes into account not only the physical but also the virtual resources of the network. These challenges require a substantial change on the network devices, from being only network equipment to cloud-enabled devices enhanced with, e.g., novel processor architectures. Besides, a fundamental change on the data centre (DC) infrastructures is essential to meet the needs of future Internet and 5G application. On the IT part of DCs, the number of virtual machines (VMs) created by different server virtualisation technologies has been increasing, and it will double over the next few years [2]. Therefore, it is critical to have an intelligent DC management system to better utilize available resources to accommodate instantiated VMs. Moreover, DC networks with the traditional tree-like architectures are reaching their limits and cannot efficiently cope with the requirements of emerging 5G applications in terms of latency and energy efficiency. This pose a serious challenge on the DC operators to revisit the networks architecture and develop appropriate technologies with low power consumption, low latency and high level of flexibility, at relatively low costs. In this paper, among all abovementioned 5G requirements, we will focus on how an end-to-end security and multi-tenancy solution can be envisioned for 5G networks as well as future DC networks in line with the 5G needs.
The recent breakthrough in Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) make the internet and e-mail as a basic service for the people of every country. The rapid growth in internet users and ICT market by the development of smart devices increase the challenges in hardware and networking management as well as effciency on software and services. Hence migration to new and latest technologies like software defned networking, cloud computing and IPv6 addressing become inevitable for the service providers throughout the world. Asia is the frst continent where shortage of IPv4 was faced. APNIC announced the depletion of IPv4 address on April 2011 [1]. Similarly the IPv4 pool on other Regional Internet Registries have already fnished except AFRINIC. With the shortage of address, Asian countries like Japan, China, India, Malaysia etc... have developed the government policies and national roadmap. They are under monitoring and evaluation of the private and public networks. European union and the American government put forward the priority on IPv6 network migration. In this paper a migration roadmap for Nepal is being proposed after reviewing the world’s IPv6 migration status, other countries policy and roadmap for migration planning as well as survey carried out with Nepalese telecom, internet market and government agencies . Journal of the Institute of Engineering, 2015, 11(1): 67-78
Today 4G mobile systems are evolving to provide IP connectivity for diverse
applications and services up to 1Gbps. They are designed to optimize the
network performance, improve cost efficiency and facilitate the uptake of mass
market IP-based services. Nevertheless, the growing demand and the diverse
patterns of mobile traffic place an increasing strain on cellular networks. To
cater to the large volumes of traffic delivered by the new services and
applications, the future 5G network will provide the fundamental infrastructure
for billions of new devices with less predictable traffic patterns will join
the network. The 5G technology is presently in its early research stages, so
researches are currently underway exploring different architectural paths to
address their key drivers. SDN techniques have been seen as promising enablers
for this vision of carrier networks, which will likely play a crucial role in
the design of 5G wireless networks. A critical understanding of this emerging
paradigm is necessary to address the multiple challenges of the future
SDN-enabled 5G technology. To address this requirement, a survey the emerging
trends and prospects, followed by in-depth discussion of major challenges in
this area are discussed.
5G network demands massive infrastructure deployment to meet its requirements. The most cost-effective deployment solution is now a challenge. This paper identifies a cost implementation strategy for 5G by reformulating existing cost models. It analyses three geo-type scenarios and calculates the total cost of ownership (TCO) after estimating the Capex and Opex. The calculations are narrowed to specific cities for clearer understanding instead of the usual generic estimates. An end-to-end 5G network resource analysis is performed. Our result shows that by the end of first year Capex constitutes over 90% of TCO for urban scenarios. Also uniform capacity deployment across geo-types impose severe investment challenges.
Service providers worldwide are facing challenges of network operations, management, security, quality of service and address deficiency problem while the current world network still run with the existing legacy system. The issues of address shortage including the problems of legacy IPv4 address have been resolved with the advancement on IPv6 addresses. Similarly the increasing complexities of networking management have also been addressed by the advancement on Software Defined Network (SDN). For the future sustainability, service providers have to migrate their existing network to newer technologies. This requires upgrades on or replacement of existing networking devices that are operating on real time. But the lack of sufficient cost, technical human resources and suitable migration plan are becoming the major challenges for the fairly sustained service providers to migrate their existing network into next generation programmable network. SDN and IPv6 are the two new paradigms in networking operation and management that jointly after migration addresses all the existing issues of current networking system. In this paper, we present a greedy algorithm to identify the migration cost of network devices in the optimal path based on customer demand for incremental adoption of SDN enabled IPv6 network. We justify that a unified migration approach to SDN and IPv6 network would help to reduce the total cost of migration. We also verify that sequence of migration considering customer demand and cost constraints give the good estimation for unified migration to Software Defined IPv6 (SoDIP6) network.
The traffic explosion and the rising of diverse requirements lead to many challenges for traditional mobile network architecture on flexibility, scalability, and deployability. To meet new requirements in the 5G era, service based architecture is introduced into mobile networks. The monolithic network elements (e.g., MME, PGW, etc.) are split into smaller network functions to provide customized services. However, the management and deployment of network functions in service based 5G core network are still big challenges. In this paper, we propose a novel management architecture for 5G service based core network based on NFV and SDN. Combined with SDN, NFV and edge computing, the proposed framework can provide distributed and on-demand deployment of network functions, service guaranteed network slicing, flexible orchestration of network functions and optimal workload allocation. Simulations are conducted to show that the proposed framework and algorithm are effective in terms of reducing network operating cost.
Satellite Communication systems are a promising solution to extend and complement terrestrial networks in unserved or under-served areas. This aspect is reflected by recent commercial and standardisation endeavours. In particular, 3GPP recently initiated a Study Item for New Radio-based, i.e., 5G, Non-Terrestrial Networks aimed at deploying satellite systems either as a stand-alone solution or as an integration to terrestrial networks in mobile broadband and machine-type communication scenarios. However, typical satellite channel impairments, as large path losses, delays, and Doppler shifts, pose severe challenges to the realisation of a satellite-based NR network. In this paper, based on the architecture options currently being discussed in the standardisation fora, we discuss and assess the impact of the satellite channel characteristics on the physical and Medium Access Control layers, both in terms of transmitted waveforms and procedures for enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB) and NarrowBand-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) applications. The proposed analysis shows that the main technical challenges are related to the PHY/MAC procedures, in particular Random Access (RA), Timing Advance (TA), and Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) and, depending on the considered service and architecture, different solutions are proposed.
In the recent past there has been much research and development on cloud based computing. While cloud computing provides huge opportunities, it also imposes several challenges. One of the challenges that current data network operators and future 5G network are foreseeing is huge increase in data traffic. To fulfill such exponential data traffic growth, along with other user expectation, requires multiple innovative approaches and re-consideration of the current network design principals. Mobile Edge Fog computing, as proposed in this paper offers huge opportunities to future data network operators, as well as to equipment vendors. Due to its relatively newer concept, still much research is ongoing and detail architecture is still evolving. This paper proposes and discusses a novel Mobile Edge Computing design and architecture, along with real-time implementation details of the proposed solutions. It exploits many benefits of D2D by incorporating D2D functionalities into the proposed relay-gateways. The application running on top of the proposed network shows significant benefits e.g. in terms of delay as well as core-network signalling and data offloading.
To cater for the demands of future fifth generation (5G) ultra-dense small cell networks, the wireless backhaul network is an attractive solution for the urban deployment of 5G wireless networks. Optimization of 5G wireless backhaul networks is a key issue. In this paper we propose a two-scale optimization solution to maximize the cost efficiency of 5G wireless backhaul networks. Specifically, the number and positions of gateways are optimized in the long time scale of 5G wireless backhaul networks. The wireless backhaul routings are optimized in the short time scale of 5G wireless backhaul networks. Numerical results show the cost efficiency of proposed optimization algorithm is better than the cost efficiency of conventional and most widely used shortest path (SP) algorithm in 5G wireless backhaul networks.
As the fourth generation (4G) LTE-Advanced network becomes a commercial success, technologies for beyond 4G and 5G are being actively investigated from the research perspective as well as from the standardization perspective. While 5G will integrate the latest technology breakthroughs to achieve the best possible performance, it is expected that LTE-Advanced will continue to evolve, as a part of 5G technologies, in a backward compatible manner to maximize the benefit from the massive economies of scale established around the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE/LTE-Advanced ecosystem from Release 8 to Release 12. In this article we introduce a set of key technologies expected for 3GPP Release 13 and 14 with a focus on air interface aspects, as part of the continued evolution of LTE-Advanced and as a bridge from 4G to 5G.
E2E migration strategies towards 5G: Long-term migration plan and evolution roadmap
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