Wednesday, January 24, 2018

​Linux Foundation seeks to bring rhyme and reason to open-source networking projects

#Opensource is transforming networking. Ever since #OpenFlow appeared in 2011 and showed that we could use software to improve networking, #opensource software, and not hardware, has blazed the future of networking. There was only one problem. There are far, far too many open-source networking projects. The @LinuxFoundation, home to nine of the 10 largest open-source networking projects, has decided enough is enough. These communities have come together to form the #LFNetworkingFund (LFN) for cross-project collaboration. Under the Linux Foundation's baton, popular open-source networking projects Open Networking Automation Platform ( #ONAP ), Open Platform for NFC ( #OPNFV ), OpenDaylight, FD.io, #PNDA, and Streaming Network Analytics System ( #SNAS ) have come together to harmonize their visions for software-defined networking ( #SDN) and network function virtualization (#NFV). It's about time! I follow open source, networking, and where and how they intersect for a living and even I have trouble keeping up with all these projects! These projects won't be merged into one master open-source network project. They answer too many different needs for various parts of the network stack for that to happen. What LFN will do is provide "avenues for greater collaboration between those projects, as well as related projects and communities across the ecosystem. Therefore, we are creating a combined administrative structure, the LFN." This platform will bridge the gaps between programs to facilitate cross-project collaboration. According to The Linux Foundation's general manager of Networking and Orchestration Arpit Joshipura, "Following the example of the Linux Foundation's Cloud Native Computing Foundation, [which brought together Kubernetes and other platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud projects] LFN will bring similar cohesion to networking communities that in many cases are already working together. Over the past five years, LFN projects have dramatically accelerated networking innovations; together, they will enable data networking advancements at an unprecedented rate for decades to come."

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