NFVI at the Edge: Technology Considerations

Communications service providers (CoSPs) are on a journey to virtualize their network, so they can benefit from greater scalability and flexibility. CoSPs have typically started by virtualizing the core network, but now 5G is intensifying pressure to make the edge more scalable and flexible too. As CoSPs extend virtualization to the edge, they will face new challenges and constraints. They will not be able to replicate their network functions virtualization infrastructure (NFVI) from the core without making significant changes, or at least considering the constraints at the edge that do not exist in the data center.