End-to-end network flow path calculation in beyond 5G multi-tenant infrastructures

Beyond 5G networks promise to bring new capabilities for the end-users, although they also impose new challenges in network and service management. One of these challenges is the complexity associated to the calculation of the path that a network flow takes. The problem comes with the usage of multiple overlay networks and even nested overlay networks to support both multi-tenancy in edge/cloud infrastructures and user mobility across base stations. The conventional forwarding and routing tables available in switches and routers are not capable of such calculation. This paper proposes a novel end-to-end data path calculation algorithm, which is tested and validated over realistic multi-tenant infrastructures with various network topologies. This research provides valuable insights into network paths and connectivity in complex infrastructures. 10 different emulated 5G infrastructures have been deployed with up to 2 Tenants and 16 Edge nodes. In the most challenging scenario, with 7035 topological nodes and edges, the algorithm achieves path calculation in 118 ms, showcasing its efficiency even under highly demanding conditions.