NFVI at the Edge: Technology Considerations

As communications service providers transform their networks for 5G, they are driving a rapid transition to virtualization and a dependency on network technology innovations that meet massive new data-processing requirements. The primary traffic load in 5G in the user-plane functions (the data, as opposed to the control or signaling associated with establishing traffic flow). Network implementations based on NFVI can increase speed and agility, improving time to market, scale for future capacity, and new services within CoSPs' operational networks. CoSPs are expected to continue the transformation from purpose-built solutions, beyond virtualized appliances, to a model of fully virtualized and cloud-native based networks. To accomplish this transformation, the journey to a more fully disaggregated deployment model must be realized.