ed Packet Core components. As SDN began to be explored by network operators, competitors to the entrenched "big three or four" vendors of these platforms began to explore new packaging models while provisioning the reduced cost and leveraging some of the principles of service virtualization. The general designs put forward were to use an SDN Controller e.g. an OpenFlow controller to program forwarding state into a (much simpler and lower cost) switching element and create application specific state (protocol or user session state) on an associated server-based application. There are also the projects to replace or centralize the functions of the current generation of routers with cheaper components like Route Flow (BGP and IGP on OpenFlow) or Flexinet (BGP on OpenFlow) and more recent work with IP Infusion (ZebOS BGPD). Traditional vendors are responding by virtualizing low-hanging fruit in traditional network operations viz. the BGP Route Reflector (vRR). These devices can be easily converted to running in a VM as they are purposely not in the data plane by design. vRR becomes a potential SDN control centralization point if it has a standardized programming interface and standardized controller/ agent control session. Then, existing Provider Edge deployments start to look like SDN deployments (even if they continue to leverage the existing distributed control plane for the most part) bridging present operations and a more virtualized future operation. Downloaded: 4/15/2022 9:44:49 AM Nova Southeastern University IP Address: 137.52.76.29 Virtualizing Network Functions in Software-Defined Networks Challenges With Network Function Virtualization In the current era, major operators desire to adapt cloud technologies to NFV in the carrier environment. An operator need to overcome major network challenges such as: Fixed Configurations: The hardware-based network appliances are configured at a system with fixed IP locations which continued unchanged for years. Manually Intensive Management: The installation and configu