Joint Fronthaul Optimization and SDN Controller Placement in Dynamic 5G Networks

To address the limitations of current Radio Access Networks (RANs), centralized-RANs adopting the concept of flexible splits of the BBU functions between Radio Units (RUs) and the central unit (CU) have been proposed. This concept can be implemented combining both the Mobile Edge Computing model and relatively large-scale centralized Data Centers. This architecture requires high bandwidth/low latency optical transport networks interconnecting RUs and compute resources adopting SDN control. This paper proposes a novel mathematical model based on Evolutionary Game Theory that allows to dynamically identify the optimal split option with the objective to unilaterally minimize the infrastructure operational costs in terms of power consumption. Optimal placement of the SDN controllers is determined by a heuristic algorithm in such a way that guarantees the stability of the whole system.