We are currently observing the softwarization of communication networks, where network functions are translated from monolithic pieces of equipment to programs running over a shared pool of computational, storage, and communication resources. While it is clear that almost any softwarization improves flexibility (eg, the ability to instantiate more servers to cope with increasing traffic demand), in this paper, we advocate for a complete redesign of the communications protocol stack, instead of a mere translation of hardware functions into software. We discuss 2 drivers for this cloud-aware redesign: (1) relaxing the tight interactions between functions and (2) supporting a graceful degradation of the service when resources become scarce. The potential benefits of this redesign are illustrated with the numerical evaluation of one use case.This work has been partially performed within the 5G-MoNArch project, part of the Phase II of the 5th Generation Public Private Partnership (5G-PPP) program partially funded by the European Commission within the Horizon 2020 Framework Program. It has also been partly funded by the Madrid Regional Government through the TIGRE5-CM program
(S2013/ICE-2919) and by the SpanishMinistry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of through the 5GCity project (TEC2016-76795-C6-3-R)
