The networks of the future will be completely virtualized in physical infrastructures – essentially datacenters of varying sizes. Very small datacenters will be located on the periphery of the network, near to the user. This physical infrastructure will be used to support software networks that are tailored to the clients’ needs and to those of the applications for which they were generated. The agility of these networks is the main differencewith previous-generation networks: it is possible to replace a network in a few minutes, or even a few seconds, and by using automation, in a few milliseconds.

However, it is important to note the difficulties that could arise from this new generation of networks: the complexity of managing the different networks and the security of the whole system. Indeed, for reasons of isolation, management cannot be shared, for fear that one network will be intermingled with another. Security is also a major issue, because of the increased complexity of the architecture and the diversity of the networks. The Cloud of security is a promising new paradigm, but it does not solve all the problems.

Overall, this new generation of technologies is based on the Cloud, and on virtualization, as is indicated by Figure C.1, which also shows the overlap with migration, NFV and Cloud of security.

The NFV standard attaches a great deal of hope to the major simplification which is offered by virtual machines. The Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV)project represents another promising avenue. The OPNFV solution would be Carrier-Grade, integrated, and should give rise to an open-source platform developed by the Linux Foundation.

Another significant advance would be concretization – i.e. the opposite of virtualization. Indeed, with software networks, we tend more to see a drop in performance in comparison to physical networks, even though the power of Clouds limits that reduction. Companies such as Radisys and Intel are beginning to explore the option of hardware that behaves like software.

5G is also greatly affected by virtualization, which offers numerous functions that are indispensable for a simple connection of billions of things. Virtualization is even responsible for massive revolutions, such as the use of C-RAN techniques, whichis spreading across the globe. Amongst these revolutions, a local loop could become very simple indeed, with a potentialreturn to the use of analog signals, which would be transported directly to the Cloud and computed there. Certainly, it is true that far more information can be conveyed by an analog signal than a digital one.

Finally, there is a new paradigm in the area of security, with a certain virtualization of secure elements, but this is more a question of delocalization of the secure element than of actual virtualization in the truest sense of the word.