Research Developments of 5G Network Slicing

As the key enabling technology for fifth-generation communication networks and beyond, network slicing（NS） has received a surge of attention and recognition from network operators and academia for its promising abilities in vertical industry customization, quality of service（QoS） assurance, isolation, flexibility, and reliability.In recent years, many institutions have pre-sented their understanding and development plans of NS through special reports or white papers.However, these works have varying focuses, and the terminology has not been standardized, which hampers the researchers' overall grasp of NS picture.To facilitate researchers' understanding of the developmental context, technology architecture, management and orchestration, and other relevant aspects of NS,this paper presents a comprehensive review for recent related work.First, it provides an overview of NS by examining its historical background, definitions, and key characteristics.Subsequently, we discuss the end-to-end NS realization in three