Intelligent 5G Networks: Managing 5G Wireless/Mobile Broadband

Today there are forceful work streams that aim at realizing the fifth generation of wireless/mobile broadband (5G WMB). The work is driven by a framework that consists of three main requirements and two main sets of technology trends. This article presents the framework with the aim of contributing to the solidification of the technological foundations and longevity of 5G WMB systems. The requirements call for the proper provisioning of a large and rapidly expanding set of applications/services, the higher valorization of the infrastructure, and a drastic improvement of the energy efficiency. As will be explained, these requirements fulfill the need for fast and reliable service deployment, offering all types of relevant quality of service (QoS)/quality of experience (QoE), handling demanding and changing contexts of operation (exploding user-data/signaling traffic volumes and diverse mobility/radio conditions), providing means for the higher monetization of service provision, and drastically improving the cost efficiency. In parallel, the first set of technology trends includes the expansion of the WMB infrastructure features in terms of a new multiservice radio interface, networking options, and ways of architecting the system due to the introduction of the software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) concepts. There is also the trend of becoming more of a cloud platform instead of being a mere communication system. The importance of advanced management intelligence is also stressed in this article.