e DCP provides a variety of functions, including, but not limited to Monitoring Automation Service orchestration LCP resource management With the aforementioned AIC as a reference throughout, this chapter explains how NFVI can be utilized to form a common, distributed cloud platform that is responsible for enterprise workloads, carrier grade network workloads, VNFs, and VNF performance profiles. 4.2 COMPONENTS OF NFVI NFVI is a distributed data center with many local sites. At a high level, NFVI is a set of physical and virtual resources that are used to host and connect virtual functions (2, n.d.). Beyond the physical components of the infrastructure, there are two key components of the NFVI-NFV orchestrator and VIMs (3, n.d.). The framework for NFVI is depicted in Figure 4.1. 4.2.1 PHYSICAL COMPONENTS As technology continues to evolve and new virtual technologies emerge, the foundation of any net- work infrastructure is still reliant on its physical resources. To that point, NFVI is no different in NFV Management OSS / BSS Orchestrator Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) VNF Manager NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) Virtual Compute Virtual Storage Virtual Network Virtual Virtualization Layer Infrastructure Manager Compute Storage Network Hardware Resources FIGURE 4.1 NFVI framework. (33, n.d. Retrieved from https://www.sdxcentral.com/wp-content/ ploads/2014/09/opnfv-nfv-open-source-network-functions-virtualization-diagram.jpg) Building the Network of the Future that it depends on physical components to provide the basis. For the sake of simplicity, we will break the components into three main categories-compute, network, and storage. 4.2.1.1 Compute: Server, Computer Processing Unit, Graphical Processing Unit, Network Interface Controller, I/O Computing components provide the functionality of the other programs or devices within the network. The most commonly known compute resource is a server. Servers can provide various functionalities, often called "services," such as sharing data or resources among multiple clients, o