Base station virtualization for OFDM air interfaces with strict isolation

Abstract

Network virtualization is a hot research topic at the moment, and mobile networks are providing services to literally billions of people. Interestingly, the virtualization of complete cellular mobile networks has received little attention up to now, and base station virtualization is a crucial part here. To this end, we propose an architecture for a virtualized base station and examine how the important isolation requirement can be provided for such a base station. We show how resource flexibility can be realized at the radio layer while at the same time keeping a competitive environment intact, and finally present a solution to how the resource assignment to a virtual base station can be verified by the owner of this virtual base station.