Ownership-aware Software-defined Backhauls in Next-generation Cellular Networks

Future cellular networks will be owned by multiple parties, e.g., two mobile operators, each of which controls some elements of the access and backhaul infrastructure. In this context, it is important that as much traffic as possible is processed by the same party that generates it, i.e., that the coupling between traffic and network ownership is maximized. Software-defined backhaul networks can attain this goal; however, existing management schemes ignore ownership altogether. We fill this gap by presenting an ownership- aware network management scheme, maximizing the amount of traffic that is processed by the same party it belongs to.