US Patent 10924351 Network functions virtualization

Technology for a virtualized network function manager (VNFM) in a mixed wireless network operable to facilitate instantiation of a virtualized network function (VNF) instance is disclosed. The VNFM can receive a request to instantiate a new VNF instance from a network manager (NM) via a network function virtualization (NFV) orchestrator (NFVO), the request including VNF instantiation information. The VNFM can send a request to a virtualized infrastructure manager (VIM) for allocating virtual resources for the new VNF instance based on the VNF instantiation information. The VNFM can receive an acknowledgement from the VIM after successful allocation of the virtualized resources for the new VNF instance. The VNFM can instantiate the new VNF instance and send an acknowledgement of the new VNF instance to the NFVO, wherein the new VNF instance is operable to ease congestion at an overloaded non-virtualized network element in the mixed wireless network.