Software defined and virtualized wireless access in future wireless networks: scenarios and standards

Future wireless networks are expected to provide augmented and data-intensive services in a multi-vendor multi-proprietor scenario. This scenario introduces relevant challenges to the networking infrastructure, especially in terms of flexibility and interoperability, that could be addressed by extending the concept of Virtualization and Software Defined Networking (SDN) to the wireless or wired-cum-wireless world. This paper provides a review of the perspectives to the extension of the SDN paradigm in the wireless domain by identifying current trends and proposed solutions, and providing the existing major standardization efforts and future trends in the field.