The Role of Virtualization in the Small Cell Enabled Mobile Edge Computing Ecosystem

Virtualisation is playing a fundamental role in the evolution of telecommunication services and infrastructures, bringing to rethink some of the traditional design paradigms of the mobile network and enabling those functionalities necessary for supporting new complex ecosystems where multiple actors can participate in a dynamic and secure environment. In Small Cell enabled Mobile Edge Computing deployments, the impact of virtualization technologies is significant in two main aspects: the design and deployment of the telecommunication infrastructure, and the delivery of edge services. Besides, the adoption of virtualization technologies has implications also in the implementation of Self Organizing Network (SON) services and in the enforcement of Service Level Agreement (SLA) policies, both critical in the automation of the delivery of multi-tenant oriented services in such complex infrastructure. From the work performed by the H2020 SESAME project, the beneficial use of virtualization techniques emerges in adding network intelligence and services in the network edge. SESAME relays on virtualization for providing Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS) and per operator Edge Computing services, consolidating the emerging multi-tenancy driven design paradigms in communication infrastructures.