Traffic Classification for Network Slicing in Mobile Networks

Abstract

Network slicing is a promising technique used in the smart delivery of traffic and can satisfy the requirements of specific applications or systems based on the features of the 5G network. To this end, an appropriate slice needs to be selected for each data flow to efficiently transmit data for different applications and heterogeneous requirements. To apply the slicing paradigm at the radio segment of a cellular network, this paper presents two approaches for dynamically classifying the traffic types of individual flows and transmitting them through a specific slice with an associated 5G quality-of-service identifier (5QI). Finally, using a 5G standalone (SA) experimental network solution, we apply the radio resource sharing configuration to prioritize traffic that is dispatched through the most suitable slice. The results demonstrate that the use of network slicing allows for higher efficiency and reliability for the most critical data in terms of packet loss or jitter.