Software Defined Networking in Wireless Mobile Networks

Thesis focuses on the topic of Software Defined Networking (SDN) in context of 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) track mobile networks. Software defined networking is a trend that is slowly making its way to most areas of computer networking. Nowadays it is visible mainly in datacenter networking, private clouds and 5G. However other technologies, such as 2G, 3G, LTE or Wi-Fi can benefit from it as well. We proposed a new architecture for GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) delivery (packet based 2G data). Architecture is designed to be backwards compatible with the radio access network which shall simplify the deployment. 2G may seem as an obsolete technology, however it is still widely used worldwide, thanks to its maturity and low production costs. Moreover it is a great fit for some of today's IoT (Internet of Things) use cases. Integral part of the new architecture is a new tunneling approach called MAC tunneling, which replaces GTP (GPRS Tunneling Protocol) tunneling. The architecture is deployable not only with GPRS, but is generalized to be used with any other access technology. Solution proof of concept is built and tested with standard, not-modified 2G base station and terminal in order to practically evaluate the architecture.