While this model worked well in the past, it inevitably led to long product cycles, a slow pace of development and reliance on proprietary or specific hardware, e.g., bespoke application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). Product development within the telecommunication industry has traditionally followed rigorous standards for stability, protocol adherence and quality, reflected by the use of the term carrier grade to designate equipment demonstrating this high reliability and performance factor. The decoupling of the network function software from the customized hardware platform realizes a flexible network architecture that enables agile network management, fast new service roll outs with significant reduction in CAPEX and OPEX. Other examples of NFV include virtualized load balancers, firewalls, intrusion detection devices and WAN accelerators to name a few. A virtualized network function, or VNF, is implemented within one or more virtual machines or containers running different software and processes, on top of commercial off the shelf (COTS) high-volume servers, switches and storage devices, or even cloud computing infrastructure, instead of having custom hardware appliances for each network function thereby avoiding vendor lock-in.įor example, a virtual session border controller could be deployed to protect a network without the typical cost and complexity of obtaining and installing physical network protection units. NFV relies upon traditional server- virtualization techniques such as those used in enterprise IT. Network functions virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture concept that leverages IT virtualization technologies to virtualize entire classes of network node functions into building blocks that may connect, or chain together, to create and deliver communication services. Creation of functions which may be chained to deliver communication services

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