 which is used to manage virtualized resources and to realize the application life cycle management. Mm7 is a reference point between the VIM and the virtualization infrastructure that is used to manage the virtualization infrastructure. Mm8 is a reference point between the user application life cycle management proxy and the OSS and is used to handle UE requests for running applications in the ME system. Mm9 is a reference point between the user application life cycle management proxy and the ME orchestrator of the ME system and is used to manage ME applications requested by UE application. Reference points related to external entities Mx1 is a reference point between the OSS and the CFS portal and is used by a third party to request the ME system to run applications in the ME system. Mx2 is a reference point between the user application life cycle management proxy and the UE application, which is used by a UE application to request the ME system to run an application in the ME system, or to move an application in or out of the ME system. This reference point is only accessible within the mobile network. It is only available when supported by the ME system. 108 Chapter 1 The ME computing and NFV are complementary concepts that can exist independently. The ME architecture has been designed in such a way that a number of different deploy- ment options of ME systems are possible. An ME system can be realized independent of an NFV environment in the same network, or can coexist with that environment. Since both MEC and NFV are based on the use of virtualization concept, the MEC applications and VNFs can be fully or partially instantiated over the same virtualization infrastructure. The MEC reference architecture reuses the concept of a VIM similar to that of the VIM of NFV framework. Multiple scenarios for deployments are possible, depending on operators' pre- ferences for their networks and their network migration plans. The relationship between MEC and NFV-MANO components is an important aspect of integrated MEC/N