The hardware resources operating within the hardware resource layer 702 can be virtualized by one or more virtual machine monitors (“VMMs”) 714A-714K (also known as “hypervisors”; hereinafter “VMMs 714”) operating within the virtualization/control layer 704 to manage one or more virtual resources that reside in the virtual resource layer 706. The VMMs 714 can be or can include software, firmware, and/or hardware that alone or in combination with other software, firmware, and/or hardware, manages one or more virtual resources operating within the virtual resource layer 706.
The virtual resources operating within the virtual resource layer 706 can include abstractions of at least a portion of the compute resources 708, the memory resources 710, the other resources 712, or any combination thereof. These abstractions are referred to herein as virtual machines (“VMs”). In the illustrated embodiment, the virtual resource layer 706 includes VMs 716A-716N (hereinafter “VMs 716”). Each of the VMs 716 can execute one or more software applications, such as, for example, software application including instructions to implement, at least in part, one or more components of the network 114.
Turning now to