Distributed Cloud and De-centralized Control Plane: A Proposal for Scalable Control Plane for 5G

5G is the next generation of mobile network. There are many requirements on 5G, such as high capacity, low latency, flexibility, and support for any-to-any communication. Cloud technology, in the form of a distributed cloud (also known as a network embedded cloud), is an enabler technology for 5G by allowing flexible networks that meet different user application requirements. On the other hand, Machine Type Communication (MTC) is a primary application for 5G, but it can add a high volume of control signaling. To manage the expected high volume of control signaling introduced by MTC, we identified the main control events that generate signaling messages in the network. Then, we proposed a decentralized core network architecture optimized for the identified control events. The proposed control plane functions are independent in the sense that each can be executed separately. The control functions can utilize the distributed cloud to manage the enormous amount of control signaling by handling this signaling locally. Additionally, we present an analysis of the control signaling performance for each proposed control function. We conclude that it is beneficial to move session management to data centers collocated with the BS on 5G network when there is high user density.