Taleb, TarikTarikTalebCorici, MariusMariusCoriciParada, CarlosCarlosParadaJamakovic, AlmerimaAlmerimaJamakovicRuffino, SimoneSimoneRuffinoKaragiannis, GeorgiosGeorgiosKaragiannisMagedanz, ThomasThomasMagedanz2022-03-052022-03-052015https://publica.fraunhofer.de/handle/publica/24046510.1109/MNET.2015.7064907The objective of this article is to demonstrate the feasibility of on-demand creation of cloud-based elastic mobile core networks, along with their lifecycle management. For this purpose the article describes the key elements to realize the architectural vision of EPC as a Service, an implementation option of the Evolved Packet Core, as specified by 3GPP, which can be deployed in cloud environments. To meet several challenging requirements associated with the implementation of EPC over a cloud infrastructure and providing it "as a Service," this article presents a number of different options, each with different characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages. A thorough analysis comparing the different implementation options is also presented.en004journal article