An advanced telco cloud simulator and its usage on modelling multi-cloud and 5G multi-access environments

This paper introduces an advanced Telco Cloud Simulator that realistically models user behavior (users of different types moving around and demanding network resources) and the effect of this behavior on the relating cloud environment and the distributed Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) subsystems. Expected inputs of the simulation are the following: guidelines behind user behavior, telco infrastructure (with access/backhaul/core segments) and characteristics of Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) needed for serving the users. Outputs of the simulation are the following: movement and network resource demands of users, placing and scaling of the different VNFs needed for service provisioning. Based on the output further computations like energy consumption, total cost of ownership, etc. can be performed. Besides detailing the simulator architecture and operation we also showcase a 5G multi-access communication scenario where multiple service provision domains are simultaneously available for users with highly different communication characteristics and network usage profiles.