Page 101 - 5G Basics - Core Network Aspects

Core network aspects 1

9 Applicability

In clauses 7 and 8, problem spaces and design goals for realizing network virtualization are investigated. This
clause describes the applicability of network virtualization by summarizing its advantages and disadvantages.
As investigated in the previous clauses, it is expected that the key characteristics and the design goals of
network virtualization will act as the catalyst to achieving the objectives and design goals of FNs. The isolation
of multiple LINPs, abstraction of network resources, flexibility in configuring and providing LINPs, and support
of mobility and wireless virtualization can contribute to their realization.
However, network virtualization also has several disadvantages, such as performance degradation of LINPs,
scalability issues for the number of possible LINPs in a shared physical network, and possibility of crashing
whole LINPs due to the failure or security problems on LINP management systems.
Therefore, before developing and deploying network virtualization to current networks, both the advantages
and disadvantages should be carefully considered from the initial stage. Furthermore, some of the features
of network virtualization should be selected according to the requirements of users and target services.

10 Environmental considerations

Network virtualization technology changes the resource (e.g., metal or fibre) consumption and energy
consumption of networks by changing the overall architecture of networks.

This technology enables operators to develop multiple LINPs on a single physical network. This reduces
necessary physical resources for constructing networks, e.g., optical fibre or copper cable, which generally
reduces energy consumption.

This technology regroups a set of mechanisms allowing more than one service to operate on the same piece
of physical resource, thus improving the hardware utilization. This opens the possibility to lower energy
consumption because a single machine under high load generally consumes less energy than several lightly-
loaded ones. Also, network virtualization can support resource consolidation which regroups underutilized
devices to reduce the energy consumption.
A possible drawback is that the structure of each node, in particular the routers and switches, become more
complicated, which may increase energy consumption.

11 Security considerations

Network virtualization enables on-demand provision and release of LINPs over configurable physical
resources. Since LINPs consist of virtual resources that are made available to users, various security issues
regarding network virtualization can be raised, especially for LINPs whose virtual resources are administered
by an outside party that provides those LINPs to the users. Many key properties of network virtualization,
such as flexibility, reconfigurability and network abstraction, make network virtualization one of the key
technologies for FNs. However, those properties can cause unexpected security and privacy problems in
traditional security models. [b-Jansen] investigates security and privacy issues related to public cloud
computing services and some of the identified issues can also be applied to network virtualization. Therefore,
the following security issues should be considered in order to mitigate potential security problems. Security
and privacy issues should be considered during planning and designing network virtualization solutions. The
issues can include security and privacy requirements of users, service providers using LINPs, and LINP
providers. Also, it is necessary to keep monitoring the security and privacy of data and applications that are
implemented and deployed in LINPs.

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