Handoff delay analysis in SDN-enabled mobile networks: A network calculus approach

With the great potential in flexible network provisioning adapted for various quality of service (QoS)requiremen ts, software-defined network (SDN)has been considered as one of the most promising network architectures in the next generation mobile networks. However, the rule management in SDNenabled mobile networks becomes a challenging task due to rapid topology changes caused by high user mobility. One primary issue is how to handle the continuous cachemisses in the new routing path during a handoff process. To resolve the cache missing issue and reduce its handoff delay, different prefetching approaches have been proposed. However, the preinstalled rules in current prefetching approaches will incur extra delay in the core network, which cannot be ignored. In this paper, based on network calculus theory, we develop an analytical handoff delay performance model for different prefetching approaches in SDN-enabled mobile networks. The derived delay bounds of prefetching approach in different network environments are validated by simulations. We show that the presented network-calculus-based delay analysis methodology can be an effective and interesting analytical approach for evaluating ultra low delay communications systems in 5G wireless.