Modelling of virtual radio resource management for cellular heterogeneous access networks

This paper proposes a model for the management of virtual radio resources. The virtualisation of radio resources is based on aggregating and managing all the available physical radio resources in a set of infrastructures. In this approach, Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) use wireless connectivity in the form of capacity per service, and do not have to deal with physical radio resources at all. Due to the isolation among instances and network elements abstraction, this virtualisation approach leads to a more efficient and flexible Radio Access Network. VNOs´ services are provided by virtual resources, based on contracts and defined SLAs (Service Level Agreements). The details of the proposed model for the management of virtual radio resources, its relationship with physical resources managers, the estimation of network capacity, and the allocation procedure of data rate to the service of each VNO are described. A practical heterogeneous cellular network is considered as a case study. Results show an increase of resource usage efficiency up to 6%, presenting how the virtual radio resource management allocates capacity to services of different VNOs, when they have different SLAs and priorities.