This document discusses software defined networks (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). It outlines different types of network traffic, including elastic and inelastic traffic. It also discusses increasing demands for data from big data, cloud computing and mobile traffic. SDN and NFV aim to better satisfy quality of service and quality of experience requirements by moving network control into software and decoupling network functions from proprietary hardware. SDN separates the network control plane and data plane, allowing centralized control of traffic flow. NFV utilizes standard virtualization to virtualize network functions on commodity hardware.