The techniques described herein relate to methods, apparatus, and computer readable media configured to provide a distributed core framework for a voice and data network. A control plane comprising a set of control plane components is executed using a set of virtual machines running on a set of computing devices. The control plane comprises a first network interface to the voice and data network that is shared by the set of control plane components. A data plane comprising a set of data plane components is executed using a set of virtual machines running on a set of computing devices. The data plane comprises a second network interface to the voice and data network that is shared by the set of data plane components. Upon receipt of a session request from a remote device, a selected data plane component is selected to handle a corresponding session, such that the selected data plane component can directly communicate with the remote device using the second network interface to handle the session.