Software Networks at the Edge

The chapter addresses the potential impact of technologies like Autonomic, Cognitive, and Software Defined Networking on future networks evolution. It is argued that said technologies, coupled with a wide adoption of virtualization, will bring an impactful disruption at the edge of current networks: in less than a decade developing distributed clouds of cheap edge nodes powerful enough to run virtualized network functions and services on standard hardware will be possible. This will improve network flexibility and programmability, creating the conditions for the development of new Telco-ICT ecosystems. The edge will become a business arena with multiple interacting networks and domains operated by diverse players. We are already witnessing this transformation, looking at the shift of value towards the users' terminals. The chapter elaborates this vision, reports a brief overview of the state of the art of enabling technologies, describes some simulation results of a use-case, and concludes by providing future research directions.