today's 4G-LTE network and future 5G networks, extend beyond the needs of SOC-based access nodes. These extensions include the need for specialized acceleration hardware for some types of nodes, and the need to support a variety of configurations with different divisions of functionality between distributed local nodes and central- ized nodes. These added requirements come from the support of a range of architectures needed to provide the most efficient deployment configurations based on the density of traffic and the variety of types of transport economically available in various parts of the wireless network. Just as GPON access technology is evolving, wireless access technology and standards are also evolving. The 4G-LTE network continues to evolve and add new capabilities with every new release of specifications from the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) [7]. Standards and develop- ment work is also ongoing for 5G, the next stage of wireless technology evolution. 5G includes a new radio interface technology called "Next Radio," generally designated as 5G-NR. Early experiments and developments are already starting to apply SDN and NFV techniques to LTE radio access network (RAN) equipment. This early work generally takes a somewhat simpli- fied approach by applying SDN and NFV only to the higher-layer switching and routing functions of the RAN nodes. The 5G network will be the target for a more comprehensive application of the SDN and NFV network cloud architecture. While it may seem obvious that the reason for this is that 5G represents a new technology point and therefore provide the opportunity for a new architec- ture, there is actually a deeper motivation for SDN and NFV in the 5G network architecture. The Building the Network of the Future 5G network represents an evolution step that is different from previous evolutions from 2G to 3G to 4G-LTE. Because of this fundamental difference, achieving the promise of 5G technology will require the incorporation of SDN and NFV network cloud technology t