NRflex: Enforcing network slicing in 5G new radio

The emerging 5G networks promise to support novel network services with different requirements in terms of Quality of Service (QoS), such as low-latency and high bandwidth. Thanks to the network slicing concept, 5G is able to fulfill these different requirements while sharing the same physical infrastructure. Although network slicing is gaining maturity, slicing the Radio Access Network (RAN) is still challenging, particularly with the emergence of new physical features added by 5G New Radio (NR), such as Bandwidth part (BWP) and physical numerology. In this paper, we introduce a new framework, namely New Radio flexibility (NRflex), which addresses the challenge of slicing the RAN in 5G. NRflex provides a solution that dynamically assigns BWP to the running slices and their associated User Equipment (UE), aiming to fulfill the slices’ required QoS. Simulation results showed the superiority of NRflex to meet network slice requirements while optimizing the 5G RAN resources, compared to other existing solutions.