EASE: EPC as a service to ease mobile core network deployment over cloud
Tarik Taleb, Marius Corici, Carlos Parada, Almerima Jamakovic, Simone Ruffino, Georgios Karagiannis, Thomas Magedanz · IEEE Network · 2015
The objective of this article is to demonstrate the feasibility of on-demand creation of cloud-based elastic mobile core networks, along with their lifecycle management. For this purpose the article describes the key elements to realize the architectural vision of EPC as a Service, an implementation option of the Evolved Packet Core, as specified by 3GPP, which can be deployed in cloud environments. To meet several challenging requirements associated with the implementation of EPC over a cloud infrastructure and providing it "as a Service," this article presents a number of different options, each with different characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. A thorough analysis comparing the different implementation options is also presented.