To accommodate various use cases with differing characteristics, the Fifth Generation (5G) mobile communications system intends to utilize network slicing. Network slicing enables the creation of multiple logical networks over a shared physical network infrastructure. While the problems such as resource allocation for multiple slices in mobile networks have been explored in considerable detail in the existing literature, the suitability of the existing mobile network architecture to support network slicing has not been analysed adequately. We think the existing 5G System (5GS) architecture suffers from certain limitations, such as a lack of slice isolation in its control plane. This work focuses on the future evolution of the existing 5GS architecture from a slicing perspective, especially that of its control plane, addressing some of the limitations of the existing 5GS architecture. We propose a new network architecture which enables efficient slicing in beyond 5G networks. The proposed architecture results in enhanced modularity and scalability of the control plane in sliced mobile networks. In addition, it also brings slice isolation to the control plane, which is not feasible in the existing 5G system. We also present a performance evaluation that confirms the improved performance and scalability of the proposed system viz a viz the existing 5G system.

翻译：为适应具有不同特性的多种应用场景，第五代（5G）移动通信系统拟采用网络切片技术。网络切片允许在共享物理网络基础设施上创建多个逻辑网络。尽管现有文献已详细探讨了移动网络中多个切片的资源分配等问题，但现有移动网络架构对网络切片支持的适用性尚未得到充分分析。我们认为现有5G系统（5GS）架构存在某些局限性，例如控制面缺乏切片隔离。本研究从切片视角聚焦现有5GS架构的未来演进，尤其关注其控制面的优化，旨在解决现有5GS架构的部分限制。我们提出了一种新型网络架构，该架构能够在超越5G的下一代网络中实现高效切片。所提架构增强了切片化移动网络中控制面的模块化与可扩展性。此外，它还实现了现有5G系统中不可行的控制面切片隔离。我们通过性能评估验证了所提系统相较现有5G系统在性能与可扩展性方面的显著提升。