ABSTRACT

The virtualization of the 5thGeneration (5G) Radio Ac-cess Network (RAN), which distributes the Next GenerationNode B (gNB) functions between a Central Unit (CU) and aDistributed Unit (DU), along with the emergence of slicingas a cornerstone of mobile communications networks, posenew challenges. One of these challenges is the managementof the joint slicing and allocation of appropriate distributionof functions between CU and DU, known as functional split.In this work, a discussion on the challenges and open issuesof joint slicing and functional splitting is posed, taking intoaccount the additional complexity resulted from instantiatingmultiple slices per DU, each one with a different functionalsplit. It is shown that the additional complexity, which istranslated into higher cost, is worthwhile depending on theRAN deployment density.