Mechanism of Reducing Signaling Processing Load in EPC/IMS Using Service-Specific Network Virtualization

Applying network function virtualization technologies in mobile communication networks is a promising solution to address the significant temporary increase in the signaling processing load in an evolved packet core and IP multimedia subsystem. However, to address a continuous increase in the signaling processing load for controlling communication services, network operators still use a large number of servers. To reduce such a load, this paper proposes a mechanism using network virtualization technologies. This mechanism creates several virtual networks, which are composed of functions specialized for particular services, on a mobile communication network and appropriately forwards a sequence of signaling messages to appropriate virtual networks. This paper also discusses the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism through simple numerical analysis by taking into account overheads, which are incurred during packet header inspection for appropriately forwarding signaling messages and packet processing at software switches.