**4. Service-based multiplexing**

#### **4.1 Principle**

5G networks are designed for a wide variety of use cases including urban mobile broadband, massive machine-type communications, ultra-reliable low latency communications, applications such as remote surgery, autonomous driving, a massive number of sensors communicating with the network, 3D video streaming.

The problem is that the physical infrastructure resources are limited. The need for data, services and operators working on the same network increase. The solution is network slicing (NS). NS will create virtual network segments for the different services within the same 5G network. NS will divide the physical network into independent logical subnets for different kinds of services, each of which has a size and structure suitable for dedicated service [29].

NS is one of the key features of 5G NR. NS allows operators to support efficiently different use cases and enterprise customers on a dedicated 5G network. NS leverages the running of multiple logical subnets on top of physical network, multiplexes data services over physical infrastructure.

The concept of network slicing is illustrated in **Figure 20** showing two slices. One slice supports smartphones with 3D streaming, virtual reality (VR) connections with guaranteed throughput slice, the other supports automotive connectivity, IIoT for smart factory with low latency slice on the same network infrastructure [30].

**Figure 20.** *Service multiplexing by network slicing.*
