Rethinking Network Architecture: Enabling Service-Based Design Beyond 5G

The Service-Based Architecture (SBA) has been successfully employed in the 5G Core since Release 15. Its modular and loosely coupled approach to network function interaction, based on the producer/consumer paradigm, perfectly pairs with the softwarization trend mobile networks have undergone over the last decade. Still, the Radio Access Network (RAN) did not leverage this approach, retaining the traditional Protocol-Based Architecture (PBA). In this paper, we make the case for adopting the SBA in the RAN, a transition we argue is both advantageous and feasible. We first present a comprehensive analysis of the benefits, such as enhanced flexibility and innovation, while also considering potential implementation challenges. Then, we detail how the SBA can be used to provide two exemplary procedures currently performed using the PBA, showing the feasibility of a fully service-based 5G network architecture.