On Active, Fine-Grained RAN and Spectrum Sharing in Multi-Tenant 5G Networks

An important target for 5G networks is to enable resource sharing among network tenants such as Mobile Virtual Network Operators and Service Providers. Several domains of resource sharing have been considered including infrastructure (compute, storage and networking), transport, Radio Access Network (RAN) and Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum. RAN and spectrum sharing are expected to be an integral part of a multi-tenant 5G network. In this paper, a centralized, fine-grained active RAN and spectrum sharing approach has been presented and analyzed using a modified SimuLTE model. The presented model can be used for analyzing active RAN and spectrum sharing models considered in a multi-tenant 5G network. We present the core modules that enable dynamic allocation of RAN slices with dedicated spectrum and resource scheduling functions. We also present preliminary simulation results that give an insight into the actual benefits and trade-offs of active spectrum sharing among RAN tenants at different time-frequency granularities.