Multi-perspective virtualization and software-defined infrastructure framework for wireless access networks

Virtualization and service-oriented architecture are important concepts that triggered the rapid evolution of cloud computing and software-defined technologies. Since wireless technologies will play an important role in the future of networking technologies, this article presents Aurora, a virtualization framework and testbed platform for supporting multiple types of virtualization techniques and architectures specifically applied to wireless technologies. Firstly, a brief background overview of the three main perspectives of wireless virtualization based on the type of virtualized resources and the depth of slicing is provided along with some of the challenges and requirements for a sustainable and generic wireless virtualization framework. Secondly, the software architecture and the design principles behind Aurora are explained. Aurora is designed to fulfil multiple roles as a powerful tool to combine multiple wireless virtualization technologies, a software-defined research platform for developing new virtualization architectures and a service-oriented wireless infrastructure manager. Lastly, an instance of the software implementation of Aurora is presented in order to demonstrate the feasibility of deployment of the framework.