It is clear that network resources, whether physical or virtual, will need to be highly distributed to support low latency, sometimes high bandwidth applications such as emergency communications, connected vehicles and next generation mobile video or virtual reality. Of course, the mobile network is already very distributed and can support large numbers of devices, but only from the point of view of connectivity and data exchange. Meanwhile, cloud computing and storage platforms have also evolved to interconnect many remote physical or virtual end points, but there has been little integration with transport networks. This gap is the subject of many R&D projects, including two EC H2020 initiatives, 5G-Crosshaul and 5G-Xhaul, as operators look to manage resources of all kinds from…