Optimal middlebox function placement in virtualized evolved packet core systems

Current evolved packet core (EPC) systems in LTE/LTE-A networks suffer from the exponentially increased mobile traffic and thus research on new EPC architectures is ongoing. In this paper, we introduce a virtualized EPC (vEPC) system where middlebox functions of the existing EPC systems are implemented in virtualized software modules and the virtualized software modules operate over selected physical service nodes. To minimize the impact of the increased transmission cost in vEPC, the optimal placement of middlebox functions is also investigated. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can achieve lower packet transmission cost than the conventional one.