Practical challenges of implementing a hybrid ISS-QoSS RAN slicing in SDN WLAN networks

Network slicing is a key feature in 4G and 5G mobile networks and, more recently, IEEE 802.11 networks. This paper proposes a hybrid Infrastructure Sharing Slicing (ISS) and Quality of Service Sharing Slicing (QoSS) solution, adapting the Airtime Deficit Weighted Round Robin (ADWRR) scheduling. The approach ensures isolation and resource segmentation among tenants or client categories, along with fine-grained traffic differentiation, prioritization or resource isolation for various service classes within slices. It includes local adaptations of allocated partitions/portions of airtime, a.k.a. quantum, at the two levels (ISS-QoSS) to improve specific QoS requirements by modifying the natural ADWRR airtime reallocation. The RAN slicing functions are implemented and tested on a Software Defined Networking (SDN) experimental prototype using an open-source framework combining centralized and distributed components. The technical focus is on practical challenges affecting local-level implementation efficiency and feasibility.