The paper “Cellular Access Multi-Tenancy through Small-Cell Virtualization and Common RF Front-End Sharing” was presented in the workshop and a corresponding demo was also given.
Unlike traditional RAN slicing focusing on RB (Resource Block) level manipulation, which is not transparent to current mobile network operation mode, this paper and demo offer a transparent solution which allows different technologies/operators to share the same SDR small cell platform but still use their own spectrum. With this solution, operator’s existing base station and UE (User Equipment) operation mode don’t need to be changed.
The paper is runner up of WiNTECH best paper competition, and is chosen to be extended as a journal paper after some future work.