Towards Security-Aware 5g Slice Embedding

5G networks tend to be multi-layered, multi-party and multi-tenant to satisfy the increasing and varying user demand. Network slicing is an efficient solution to share the physical network between different and independent virtual networks called slices . While many research works focused on the slice resource allocation, called slice embedding , little attention was paid to the security aspects. In this paper, we deal with security-aware 5G slice embedding . This consists in satisfying the slice request while meeting its security needs. In a first step, we model the common security needs and best practices for 5G slices. This is used to design a security-aware slice request . Second, we devise a slice embedding algorithm that respects the security constraints. Third, we analyse the scalability of making slice embedding security-aware, in terms of acceptance rate, cost to revenue ratio, execution time and physical resource utilization. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.