The ever-increasing traffic demand is pushing network operators to find newcost-efficient solutions towards the deployment of future 5G mobile networks.The network sharing paradigm was explored in the past and partially deployed.Nowadays, advanced mobile network multi-tenancy approaches are increasinglygaining momentum paving the way towards further decreasing Capital Expendituresand Operational Expenditures (CAPEX/OPEX) costs, while enabling new businessopportunities. This paper provides an overview of the 3GPP standard evolutionfrom network sharing principles, mechanisms and architectures to futureon-demand multi-tenant systems. In particular, it introduces the concept of the5G Network Slice Broker in 5G systems, which enables mobile virtual networkoperators, over-the-top providers and industry vertical market players torequest and lease resources from infrastructure providers dynamically viasignaling means. Finally, it reviews the latest standardization effortsconsidering remaining open issues for enabling advanced network slicingsolutions taking into account the allocation of virtualized network functionsbased on ETSI NFV, the introduction of shared network functions and flexibleservice chaining.
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