Quality of Service Modelling of Virtualized Wireless Networks: A Network Calculus Approach

Wireless network virtualization is an emerging technology that logically divides a wireless network element, such as a base station (BS), into multiple slices with each slice serving as a standalone virtual BS. In such a way, one physical mobile wireless network can be partitioned into multiple virtual networks each operating as an independent wireless network. Wireless virtual networks, as composed of these virtual BSs, need to provide quality of service (QoS) to mobile end user services. Key QoS parameters include buffer queue length, network delay and effective bandwidth, in particular their upper bound forms. This paper presents a QoS model for such a wireless virtual network addressing these parameters. This QoS model considers resources of both physical nodes and virtual nodes and provides a realistic modelling of the delay and bandwidth behaviours of wireless virtual networks. Network calculus (NC), which usually provides finer insight into a system, is utilized to fulfil the modelling task. The numerical results have shown the effectiveness of the proposed model. The model is useful for both off-line network planning and online network admission control. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York.