Guest Editors' Introduction: Special Issue on Management of Softwarized Networks

There is currently a strong interest in both industry and academia in the softwarization of telecommunication networks and cloud computing infrastructures. This evolution is enabled by three paradigms. First, Software-Defined Networking (SDN) allows network control to be separated from the forwarding plane and allows for a flexible management of the network resources. Second, Network Virtualization (NV) brings virtualization concepts to the network, similar to cloud computing, which was enabled by virtualization of servers. Third, Network Function Virtualization (NFV) focuses on virtualization of software-based network functions. Instead of installing and managing dedicated hardware devices for these functions, they are implemented as software components and deployed on commodity hardware infrastructures, in most cases operated by a network operator or cloud infrastructure provider. Service Function Chaining (SFC) consists of building services using virtual network functions (VNFs). These three paradigms are synergetic and reinforce each other when used together. Several initial SDN, NV and NFV deployments are already operational in providers' networks. © 2016 IEEE.