Open-source networking hits tipping point with proliferation of real-world deployments, industry collaborations, and mature project releases

• Deployments accelerate as technology matures with new cross-industry use cases from Retail, Enterprise, Telco, and more all leveraging open source blueprints and project code
• Combining open software & open hardware, Open Compute Project & Linux Foundation strengthen existing collaboration to further market-ready solutions 
• ONAP’s upcoming Kohn release, named in honour of the late Dan Kohn, brings new functionality and use cases, including E2E Network Slicing with RAN

SEATTLE, Washington – ONE Summit North America – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organisation enabling mass innovation through open source, and LF Networking, the facilitator of collaboration and operational excellence across open source networking projects, and announced industry evolution across the entire networking stack with new deployments,  ecosystem collaborations,  projects,  releases,  and more. 

ONE Summit’s opening keynote address by Linux Foundation general manager of Networking, Edge and IoT, Arpit Joshipura, focused on substantial ecosystem growth demonstrating the power and maturation of open source across the industry. 

“The industry has surpassed the tipping point when it comes to leveraging open source for enabling digital transformation,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “Leading organisations are using our project code -- which continues to evolve and mature -- in real-world deployments to scale. The community’s collaborative work across the ecosystem is humbling and impressive; we can’t wait to see what’s next!” 

Items discussed during today’s keynote include:

Expanded Collaboration with OCP

First announced during last month’s Open Compute Summit,  the Open Compute Project, the nonprofit organisation bringing hyperscale innovations to all, and the Linux Foundation are building on an existing foundation of collaboration first made official in 2017. The two organizations  committed to leverage a hardware-software co-design strategy by establishing a framework for creation of joint-effort shared communities and coordinated deliverables. 

Linux Foundation projects Deployed in the Real World

At ONE Summit, it was announced that DENT, an open source ecosystem utilising the Linux Kernel, Switchdev, and other Linux based projects, is now deployed by Amazon as part of its Just Walk Out Technology in third-party customer stores worldwide to streamline the customer experience and scale in-store operations. 

Additional organisations across business, retail, government, education, vendors, and service providers leverage Linux Foundation open components to build platforms, solutions, frameworks, products, and services. LF Networking recently published several case studies featuring project deployments across ONAP, OpenDaylight, EMCO and FD.io by organisations including AT&T, Orange, Verizon, Equinix, Netgate, Spark New Zealand, Aarna Networks and more. Recent use cases from LF Edge projects Fledge, EdgeX Foundry, Akraino and Open Horizon and include deployments from Archer Daniels/Canola Oil, IBM’s Mayflower Autonomous Ship, UC Davis, OpusOne Winery,  and more.  

Additionally, LF Edge featured its first End-to-End LF Edge Solution Showcase on the ONE Summit show floor, with eight cross-project deployment demonstrations.  

ONAP “Kohn” Release

The eleventh ONAP release, available in the coming weeks, has been named “Kohn” in honour of the late Dan Kohn. Kohn, who passed away in 2021 was a pioneer in the open-source cloud-native space, having led the Linux Foundation’s sister project, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, for many years. 

ONAP Kohn will bring new features and enhancements to ONAP, including: 

• End-to-end Network Slicing with RAN, Transport and Core, aligned with O-RAN A1 policy and IETF Transport
• Enhanced SON use case
• Intent-driven closed-loop autonomous network
• New functionality in the Cross-Carrier VPN (CCVPN) use case, 

5G Super Blue Print: Multi Collaboration in an Open World

LFN’s 5G Super Blue Print, which gives global communications providers and businesses a full architecture of how to deliver a total solution — replete with high-bandwidth, low-latency, scalable, and cost-effective digital networking infrastructure — from end-user device to cloud application destination, continues to evolve. Multiple member companies and open source organisations (including sister project LF Edge) continue to build out end-to-end working infrastructure to support Industry 4.0 and 5G-enabled use cases. 

ONE Summit’s Day 2 keynotes will feature an on-stage highlight of the latest Proof-of-Concept (PoC) featuring a factory floor worker safety use case. Additionally,  the LFN Developer & Testing Forum, following ONE Summit, November 17-18, will feature hands-on opportunities with 5G Super Blue Print use cases.

L3AF Project Issues First Release 

L3AF,  a multi-cloud, vendor agnostic eBPF as a Service orchestration system that provides complete lifecycle management for eBPF programs across multiple clouds has just issued its first release, L3AF R1. LF Networking’s newest project, which joined the umbrella in 2021, offers the first open source, cross-platform multi-cloud environment to enable eBPF as a service.  With support from Walmart Global Tech and Wipro, L3AF R1 adds support for chaining and tail calls managed through the L3AF API. More information about L3AF and the R1 release are available here.