Assessment of the impact of limited computing resources on vRAN deployment.

Abstract

The new generation of mobile networks goes beyond radio communications by providing a resilient and flexible architecture. In this context, the virtualization of Radio Access Networks (vRAN) completes the Network Function Virtualization (NFV) milestone, enabling a distributed and scalable network architecture. However, this approach increases the complexity of management tasks where computing resources start to play an essential role in the network provisioning process. In this sense, this work aims to assess the impact of computational resources on network performance. The results obtained prove that inadequate resource assignment to vRAN instances leads to service degradation that may remain unnoticed by the network operator. Furthermore, the importance of the vRAN configuration in these scenarios is highlighted, as allocated compute resources can have unintended effects on the quality of service (QoS).