A pattern for network functions virtualization

Cloud computing has brought a large variety of services available to potential consumers. A recent type of services are the provision of network functions using virtualization. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture where network node functions such as load balancers, firewalls, IDS, and accelerators are built in software and offered as services. This approach results in reduced complexity in network design, better scalability and agility, as well as faster deployment. We present here a pattern for the NFV architecture