ProSLICE: An Open RAN-based approach to Programmable RAN Slicing
16 October 2021
The increasing popularity of programmable wireless networks has led to efforts by both industry as well as academia to redesign the access networks based on the Open RAN concept. At the same time, cellular solutions to enterprise wireless networks have been gaining ground with a view to addressing the diverse requirements associated with enterprise environments. To that end, this paper aims to address a two-fold objective relating to programmable cellular networks centered around an enterprise wireless use case. More specifically, the first objective is the design, development, and implementation of an open-source O-RAN platform complete with a fully disaggregated data plane and a near-real time network controller, while the second objective involves showcasing an enterprise use case for the O-RAN ecosystem by using our proposed platform for the design and control of enterprise wireless access. In particular, the latter includes an extensive performance evaluation concerning a variety of enterprise deployment scenarios accompanied by a robust network slicing framework for fine-grained control. The results thus obtained reinforce our assertion about the versatility of O-RAN making it particularly well-suited for enterprise networks.
