Towards a Next Mobile Network

Abstract:
With the introduction of UMTS and the current deployment of LTE radio technology, mobile networks are becoming true All-IP networks. High transmission rates and advanced web-stimulated applications will amplify the users demand to further advanced network services. This raises the need for a new evolution step of the mobile core network. In this paper we propose a general architecture for a next generation mobile network called Next Mobile Network (NMN). The NMN addresses the need for an advanced service delivery platform as well as a large-scale, power-efficient transport network motivated by the further advancing radio technologies such as LTE-A. As it will not be appropriate any more for each existing operator to establish such a huge network separately, the physical network may be shared based on network virtualization, which is regarded as an integral part of the NMN architecture.