Improving the flexibility of 5G heterogeneous networks by slicing

5G and beyond-5G networks need to support all the traffic pressure by extensive Internet of Things networks. In this document, we review how to improve the flexibility of 5G networks by conducting slicing. We describe the four main pillars for this transition: mass adoption of Software Defined Networking, collocation of aggregators at Multi-access Edge Computing platforms, virtualization of infrastructure and removal of Application Functions through distributed responsibilities over the network. We will present an overview of the efforts being conducted for each of these points and the vision for beyond-5G networks.