An expansion of services and unprecedented traffic growth is anticipated in future networks, aligned with the adoption of the long-awaited Fifth Generation (5G) of mobile communications. To support this demand, without exposing mobile operators to the pressure of CAPEX and OPEX, 5G uses new frequency bands, and adopts promising trends, including: densification, softwarization, and autonomous management. While the first technology is proposed to handle the traffic growth requirements, the softwarization and autonomous management are expected to play, in synergy, to ensure the desired trade-off between reducing the CAPEX and OPEX, while guaranteeing the quality of service (QoS). Softwarization is expected to transform the network design, from one size fits all, to more demand oriented adaptive resource allocation. In this work, we focus on this point, by discussing how these technologies act in synergy towards enabling RAN sharing. Particularly, we focus on how they fit into the issue of energy efficient Multi-Operator Resource Allocation (MO-RA). After a survey and classification of schemes leveraging this synergy for distinct resource allocation (RA) objectives, we present a detailed survey and qualitative classification of RA schemes with respect to energy efficiency. This work presents an innovative survey, since it concentrates on multiple operators, and the enabling of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), which will come into play with the complete virtualization of mobile networks. Based on the deep literature analysis of the different operations that can bring energy savings to MO-RA, we conclude the work with listing open challenges and future research directions.

中文翻译：

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共享 RAN 中的节能资源分配：调查和定性分析


随着期待已久的第五代移动通信 (5G) 的采用，未来网络预计将出现服务扩展和前所未有的流量增长。为了满足这一需求，同时又不让移动运营商面临资本支出和运营支出的压力，5G 使用新的频段，并采用了有前途的趋势，包括：致密化、软件化和自主管理。虽然第一项技术是为了满足流量增长的要求而提出的，但软件化和自主管理预计将发挥协同作用，以确保在降低资本支出和运营支出之间实现所需的权衡，同时保证服务质量 (QoS)。软件化有望将网络设计从一刀切转变为更加以需求为导向的自适应资源分配。在这项工作中，我们通过讨论这些技术如何协同作用以实现 RAN 共享来关注这一点。我们特别关注它们如何适应节能多运营商资源分配（MO-RA）问题。在对利用这种协同作用实现不同资源分配 (RA) 目标的方案进行调查和分类后，我们对 RA 方案在能源效率方面进行了详细的调查和定性分类。这项工作提出了一项创新性的调查，因为它集中于多个运营商以及移动虚拟网络运营商（MVNO）的支持，这将随着移动网络的完全虚拟化而发挥作用。基于对可为 MO-RA 带来节能的不同操作的深入文献分析，我们列出了开放挑战和未来研究方向来结束这项工作。