Centralized vs. distributed: On the placement of gateway functionality in 5G cellular networks

Gateways are essential components of cellular networks, they perform accounting, packet inspection, and serve as mobility anchors. In the discussion on a future 5G cellular network architecture, the location of gateway functionality in cellular networks, i.e. their number and placement, is subject to some debate. Both centralized and distributed network architectures are currently considered. In this paper, we take a simulation based approach to compare the cost of such architectures for a typical nation-wide network. The results show that already a low number of well distributed gateways results in costs which are close to the optimum.