An Overview of Network Slicing for 5G

TLDR

5G must support diverse vertical use cases with varying performance, cost, security, and mobility needs, making the traditional one‑size‑fits‑all approach inadequate and prompting the adoption of network slicing to create customized logical networks. This article surveys 5G network slicing, outlining its concepts, enabling technologies, and current progress, while highlighting open challenges for practical deployment. The survey explains the driving forces behind slicing, defines the concept, and reviews key enabling technologies such as network function virtualization, modularization, dynamic service chaining, and management and orchestration. Recent 3GPP standardization efforts and industry implementations demonstrate the feasibility of 5G network slicing, though practical deployment still faces significant challenges.

Abstract

Besides conventional mobile broadband communication service, 5G is envisioned to support various new use cases from vertical industries. These new scenarios bring diverse and challenging requirements, such as a broader range of performance, cost, security protection, and mobility management. The one-size-fits-all design philosophy applied in existing networks is not viable any more. Slicing a single physical network into several logical networks customized to different unique requirements has emerged as a promising approach to fulfill such divergent requirements in a sustainable way. In this article, we provide a comprehensive survey of 5G network slicing. We first present the driving forces and the concept of network slicing. Then related key enabling technologies, including network function virtualization and modularization, dynamic service chaining, management and orchestration are discussed. The latest progress in 3GPP standardization and industry implementation on 5G network slicing is presented. Finally, the article identifies several important open issues and challenges to inspire further study toward a practical network slicing enabled 5G system.