Experimental evaluation of network packet latency within a distributed NFV Infrastructure

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architecture together with the Software-defined Networking (SDN) are the driver for the network services improvements. They complement the 5G expansion. Together they are the enablers of long awaited IoT penetration as well as the AI mass usage . With such a scenario, networks grow towards the edge with a need for the storage and compute resources to be brought in the proximity to the access networks, thus allowing network latency to be under 1ms and minimizing the backhaul traffic. It is important for reliable, cost effective, and low-latency services and improved end-user experience. We have made an experimental setup of a distributed NFV architecture to investigate the network packet delay in services that span across multiple geographically separated locations. The objective of the research is to come with a conclusion that will help network architects to assess the NFV architecture and to make a distribution of the infrastructure on which the services lay on.