ZTE Communications ›› 2014, Vol. 12 ›› Issue (2): 28-33.DOI: DOI:10.3939/j.issn.1673-5188.2014.02.005

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Software-Defined Cellular Mobile Network Solutions

Jiandong Li, Peng Liu, and Hongyan Li   

  1. Information Science Institute, State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
  • Received:2014-02-15 Online:2014-06-25 Published:2014-06-25
  • About author:Jiandong Li (jdli@mail.xidian.edu.cn) received his BE, MS, and PhD degrees in Communications Engineering from Xidian University, Xi’an, in 1982, 1985 and 1991. He has been a faculty member of the school of Telecommunications Engineering, Xidian University, since 1985. He is currently a professor and vice director of the academic committee of the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks. Professor Li is a senior member of IEEE. He was a visiting professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, from 2002 to 2003. He was the general vice chair of ChinaCom 2009 and TPC chair of IEEE ICCC 2013. He was awarded as Distinguished Young Researcher award from NSFC and Changjiang Scholar from the Ministry of Education, China. His main research interests include wireless communication theory, cognitive radio, and signal processing.

    Peng Liu (liupeng0218@gmail.com) is a PhD candidate at Xidian University, Xi’an, China. He is also a visiting scholar at Columbia University, NY. He received his BS degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Xidian University in 2010. His research interests include resource allocation, interference avoidance, and interference cancellation in heterogeneous networks; and packet scheduling in SDN.

    Hongyan Li (hyli@xidian.edu.cn) received her MS degree in control engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 1991. She received her PhD degree in signal and information processing from Xidian University, China, in 2000. She is currently a professor in the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xidian University. Her research interests include wireless networking, cognitive networks, integration of heterogeneous network, and mobile ad hoc networks.

Software-Defined Cellular Mobile Network Solutions

Jiandong Li, Peng Liu, and Hongyan Li   

  1. Information Science Institute, State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xidian University, Xi’an 710071, China
  • 作者简介:Jiandong Li (jdli@mail.xidian.edu.cn) received his BE, MS, and PhD degrees in Communications Engineering from Xidian University, Xi’an, in 1982, 1985 and 1991. He has been a faculty member of the school of Telecommunications Engineering, Xidian University, since 1985. He is currently a professor and vice director of the academic committee of the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks. Professor Li is a senior member of IEEE. He was a visiting professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, from 2002 to 2003. He was the general vice chair of ChinaCom 2009 and TPC chair of IEEE ICCC 2013. He was awarded as Distinguished Young Researcher award from NSFC and Changjiang Scholar from the Ministry of Education, China. His main research interests include wireless communication theory, cognitive radio, and signal processing.

    Peng Liu (liupeng0218@gmail.com) is a PhD candidate at Xidian University, Xi’an, China. He is also a visiting scholar at Columbia University, NY. He received his BS degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Xidian University in 2010. His research interests include resource allocation, interference avoidance, and interference cancellation in heterogeneous networks; and packet scheduling in SDN.

    Hongyan Li (hyli@xidian.edu.cn) received her MS degree in control engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, China, in 1991. She received her PhD degree in signal and information processing from Xidian University, China, in 2000. She is currently a professor in the State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xidian University. Her research interests include wireless networking, cognitive networks, integration of heterogeneous network, and mobile ad hoc networks.

Abstract: The emergency relating to software-defined networking (SDN), especially in terms of the prototype associated with OpenFlow, provides new possibilities for innovating on network design. Researchers have started to extend SDN to cellular networks. Such new programmable architecture is beneficial to the evolution of mobile networks and allows operators to provide better services. The typical cellular network comprises radio access network (RAN) and core network (CN); hence, the technique roadmap diverges in two ways. In this paper, we investigate SoftRAN, the latest SDN solution for RAN, and SoftCell and MobileFlow, the latest solutions for CN. We also define a series of control functions for CROWD. Unlike in the other literature, we emphasize only softwaredefined cellular network solutions and specifications in order to provide possible research directions.

Key words: SDN, cellular network, radio access network, core network, OpenFlow

摘要: The emergency relating to software-defined networking (SDN), especially in terms of the prototype associated with OpenFlow, provides new possibilities for innovating on network design. Researchers have started to extend SDN to cellular networks. Such new programmable architecture is beneficial to the evolution of mobile networks and allows operators to provide better services. The typical cellular network comprises radio access network (RAN) and core network (CN); hence, the technique roadmap diverges in two ways. In this paper, we investigate SoftRAN, the latest SDN solution for RAN, and SoftCell and MobileFlow, the latest solutions for CN. We also define a series of control functions for CROWD. Unlike in the other literature, we emphasize only softwaredefined cellular network solutions and specifications in order to provide possible research directions.

关键词: SDN, cellular network, radio access network, core network, OpenFlow