Huawei Huawei Lancaster University KDDI Lab Network edge appliances such as subscriber termination, firewalls, tunnel switching, intrusion detection, and routing are currently provided using dedicated network function hardware. As network function is migrated from dedicated hardware platforms into a virtualized environment, a set of use cases with application specific requirements begin to emerge. These use cases and requirements cover a broad range of capability and objectives, which will require detailed investigation and documentation in order to identify relevant architecture, protocol and procedure solutions. This document provides an analysis of the key management requirements for applications that may be hosted within a virtualized environment. These engineering requirements are based on a variety of uses cases and goals , which include: virtual application security, reliability, scalability, performance, operation and automation. Note that this document is not intended to provide or recommend protocol solutions.