NetVMs
NetVMs are virtual machines or virtual instances that are specialized to perform network processing tasks. They are commonly used to implement network functions as software, such as virtual routers, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, NAT, VPN gateways, load balancers, or packet brokers, within a broader software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) environment.
In practice, NetVMs run on standard hypervisors on commodity hardware and may be deployed as stand-alone VMs
Management and lifecycle of NetVMs typically involve instantiation, scaling, updating, and migration, coordinated through NFV MANO
Use cases include data centers, cloud providers, and telecom networks where flexible, software-defined network services are