Planning for 5G: A Network Perspective on Quality of Experience

Abstract

This chapter returns the focus to the technology itself. It explores how technology can approach resource management in a user-centred manner. Specifically the chapter takes a look at a 5G resource management scenario to provide a network perspective on the user experience, more as a QoE evaluation in this case. It presents the 5G mechanism of network slicing, which is planned by 5G as a mechanism to address user QoE. Given that network slicing is a wanted solution to support user QoE in 5G networks, specific aspects are explored such as the need to limit the amount of slices in order to avoid a resource scarcity issue and the need to deal with groups of applications assigned to each slice. Groups of applications assigned to a specific slice have similar resource requirements and corresponding quality requirements, but resource management mechanisms still need to address the needs of individual services or applications. The challenge that arises from this grouping of services is that in such a scenario, each service or application has its own specific requirements in addition to the main target requirement for the group, which characterises any specific slice. The chapter presents a scenario that deals with having two applications sharing a slice and having some different requirements.