ONF to boost SDN with reference designs as Gold Standards
The ONF operators, AT&T, China Unicom, Comcast, Google, Deutsche Telekom, NTT Group, Telefonica, and Turk Telekom jointly developed and unanimously approved this plan.
The ONF’s work is having a significant impact across the networking landscape. The open source projects ONOS, Trellis and CORD have gained significant traction with operators. Eighteen tier-1 operators are actively testing and trialling, and at least two tier-1 operators are moving into production with projects in 2018.
At the same time, operators have recognized a lack of clarity on common platforms. Unnecessary customization drives variants and unique requirements into the ecosystem, which in turn drives complexity and cost. There is a need to help identify common platforms that will be deployed across multiple operators and to help the industry rally and benefit from shared investment.
“The plan is highlighted by two major components: 1) operators and ONF will work together to create common modular reference designs using components such as white boxes and open source platforms, and 2) operators and ONF will work on driving the components of the reference designs to be production-ready, and in selected areas will create integrated implementations of the designs,” said Andre Fuetsch, President and Chair of the ONF Board, and Chief Technology Officer and President, AT&T Labs.
Reference designs
Operators are organizing to address the need for common platforms by working together inside the ONF to create reference designs (RDs) to serve as “gold standards” for combining component projects into common platforms upon which operators will build solutions. Each RD will be championed by a select group of operators, and will be designed with participation by invited supply chain partners sharing the vision and demonstrating active investment in building open source solutions.
RDs will describe how a collection of projects can be assembled to address specific needs as a deployable platform. The components can come from across the industry and are not limited to ONF projects. Each reference design is to serve as a blueprint for the industry, backed by specific operator interest. More mature RDs will also be backed by operator plans to move an implementation of the RD towards production. Operators are currently considering a few areas of focus, including: fixed and mobile broadband access, leaf-spine data center fabrics, multi-access edge, 5G solutions at the edge and a continued push with SDN so our industry can realize the full potential of software-defined.
By investing in reference designs, operators intend to make clear to the industry what solutions they plan to procure and deploy. Additionally, by providing opportunities for like-minded suppliers to participate in reference design creation and in building of the open source platforms, forward looking companies will be positioned to serve the emerging market for solutions based on open source platforms.
“Operators’ commitment to take open source solutions into production represents the next big step in realizing the full potential of software-defined, disaggregation and open source,” said Guru Parulkar, Executive Director for the ONF.
“The ONF has come a long way since its founding in 2011. Like all the best disruptions, SDN changed who is in control, putting network owners and operators firmly in charge of their networks for the first time,” said Nick McKeown, Professor, Stanford University and ONF Board Member.
“Today, we take it for granted that if you own a network you can write, edit, commission or simply download the software that controls your network. One of the ONF’s lasting contributions has been to drive an open-source software ecosystem for networking – including ONOS, Trellis and CORD – and rallying those who own and operate big and small networks alike. While transformation takes time, the keys are steadily being handed over, allowing a Cambrian explosion of new ideas to take root, and breaking the stranglehold of the old ways.”
Reference designs outline how various component projects can be combined in a modular way to craft platforms. ONF community will continue to advance projects such as ONOS, Stratum, Trellis and VOLTHA as these are viewed as important components to be used when building Exemplar Platforms.
Exemplar Platforms
The ONF’s work on platforms like CORD will be enhanced to reinforce RDs. The ONF community, with operator support, will expand in size and scope as necessary to build exemplar platforms for more mature RDs in order to flush out the platform using a ‘software before standards’ mindset that has proven so successful with CORD. Each platform will create an instantiation of an RD that can easily be trialed and then customized by operators as they build solutions to suit their particular needs. Platforms may be focused on a range of outcomes, from proof-of-concept for more exploratory work to field-trial-ready where operators and the community pool resources to invest in a platform with significant shared traction.
Open source supply chain
The ONF operator leadership is invested in the emergence of a new open source supply chain, backed by companies prepared to cooperatively deliver production-ready solutions based on open source and white boxes.
The operators envision a new ecosystem emerging that embraces these new approaches to building and deploying solutions. The operators leading the ONF are committed to showing a path forward and a road to revenue for companies that step up to play an active role in this new open source era.
Reference designs will clearly indicate to the market what operators are planning to deploy. With specific operators backing specific RDs, there should be no doubt about what platforms are gaining traction in the industry. In turn, exemplar platforms will provide a starting point for building solutions aligned with any particular RD. This will provide a proof-of-concept, thus speeding time to market while reducing the R&D expense of building a solution. In this way, working through the ONF, the operators will be giving the industry clear direction and the tools to rapidly innovate and deliver solutions.
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