A capability is provided for virtualizing control plane functions of a wireless core packet network (WCPN). A forwarding element (FE) is configured to provide a set of data plane functions of the WCPN. A virtual control element (VCE) is configured to provide a set of control plane functions of the WCPN. The VCE includes a set of virtual machines (VMs) where at least one of the VMs is configured to detect a condition associated with a tunnel, for a wireless terminal (WT), between the FE and a wireless access device (WAD) configured to serve the WT, and propagate, toward the FE, a message comprising a tunnel command configured to instruct the FE to at least one of install, remove, or modify a tunnel rule associated with the tunnel between the FE and the WAD. The tunnel enables the WT to access a packet data network (PDN).