Small-Scale 5G Testbeds for Network Slicing Deployment: A Systematic Review

Developing specialized cloud-based and open-source testbeds is a practical approach to investigate network slicing functionalities in the fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks. This paper provides a comprehensive review of most of the existing cost-efficient and small-scale testbeds that partially or fully deploy network slicing. First, we present relevant software packages for the three main functional blocks of the ETSI NFV MANO framework and for emulating the access and core network domains. Second, we define primary and secondary design criteria for deploying network slicing testbeds. These design criteria are later used for comparison between the testbeds. Third, we present the state-of-the-art testbeds, including their design objectives, key technologies, network slicing deployment, and experiments. Next, we evaluate the testbeds according to the defined design criteria and present an in-depth summary table. This assessment concludes with the superiority of some of them over the rest and the most dominant software packages satisfying the ETSI NFV MANO framework. Finally, challenges, potential solutions, and future works of network slicing testbeds are discussed.