ABSTRACT
The ubiquitous deployment of smartphones was supported by the upgrade of the cellular network. With the advent of the fifth generation of cellular networking expected in 2020 and the rapid introduction of Internet connected devices, the local access, metropolitan, and national backbone networks are being reengineered to meet the expected connectivity demand from such devices. Network functions are becoming virtualized with the Control Layer which manages the devices being separated from the Transport Layer which performs the switching and routing. Millions of devices are being created with communication capabilities and many can be imbedded within industrial, healthcare, home, and office instrumentation, such elements have been dubbed “the Internet of Things” or IoT. Beyond requiring a new radio connection and utilizing increased bandwidth, the major change to the physical access, metropolitan, and national backbone networks will be a requirement to allow customers and devices to demand an elastic service from the transport network.
