Fourth-Generation (4G) mobile networks are based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technologies and are being deployed\nworldwide, while research on further evolution towards the Fifth Generation (5G) has been recently initiated. 5G will be featured\nwith advanced network infrastructure sharing capabilities among different operators.Therefore, an open-source implementation\nof 4G/5G networks with this capability is crucial to enable early research in this area. The main contribution of this paper is the\ndesign and implementation of such a 4G/5G open-source testbed to investigate multioperator infrastructure sharing capabilities\nexecuted in virtual architectures. The proposed design and implementation enable the virtualization and sharing of some of the\ncomponents of the LTE architecture.Atestbed has been implemented and validatedwith intensiveempirical experiments conducted\nto validate the suitability of virtualizing LTE components in virtual infrastructures (i.e., infrastructures with multitenancy sharing\ncapabilities). The impact of the proposed technologies can lead to significant saving of both capital and operational costs formobile\ntelecommunication operators.
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