End-to-End Slicing as a Service with Computing and Communication Resource Allocation for Multi-Tenant 5G Systems

5G services, such as Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications, Massive Machine Type Communications and Enhanced Mobile Broadband, support low (or ultra-low) latency, a huge number of connections, and high bandwidth. Typically, 5G platforms are shared by multiple tenants, where each tenant has different service deployment requirements and thus requires different amounts of resources from the lower tier (i.e., radio access network and mobile edge) and upper tier (i.e., transport network and central office) of the 5G architecture. Consequently, slicing is a key technology in 5G networks for providing scalability and flexibility in allocating the 5G resources with appropriate isolation. This study proposes an End-to-End Slicing as a Service framework for slicing both computing and communication resources across the full 2-tier multi-access edge computing architecture. The framework is implemented using open source tools. It is shown that the framework successfully isolates the 5G resources, which are computing and communication, between slices (slicing isolation effect ratio equals 1) and ensures that resources of the deployed slices are merely sufficient to meet the latency requirements of the tenants. Moreover, the experiments show that URLLC and mMTC services require more than 70 percent of the needed computing and communication resources be provided by the edge and RAN in order to satisfy their tighter latency requirements. Overall, the results suggest a central to edge resource allocation ratio of 9:1, 3:7, and 1:9 for the eMBB, URLLC, mMTC applications, respectively. Therefore, the resources in the edge and RAN are critical.