ONF flock takes off with Linux Foundation

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced that its portfolio of leading open source networking projects, encompassing access, edge and cloud solutions, are set to graduate to become independent projects under the Linux Foundation (LF). The move creates independent, community-led governance for the three major project areas: Broadband, Aether and P4, and sets the projects up for broader collaboration and adoption. As a result of this merger, ONF will be dissolved, transferring all operations to LF.

Since 2011, the ONF has driven a proactive agenda to build open source solutions across the spectrum of networking domains. ONF’s projects have matured and moved into production deployments worldwide, championed by tier-1 cloud and telecom operators. Following the release of ONF’s complete portfolio to open source over the past year, the ONF Board determined that the next logical step for ONF’s portfolio of projects is to give them each full independence and move them into a community-led framework.

As a result of this merger three new project directed funds are being created under LF to support the work of the technical projects, including:

LF Broadband Directed Fund – supports a collection of projects that transformed broadband networks and the Passive Optical Network (PON) industry. The portfolio includes the SEBA reference design for building open broadband networks, and the VOLTHA open source project for virtualizing multi-vendor PON systems. These projects are in deployment with Deutsche Telekom, Jio, Türk Telekom and elsewhere around the world.

Aether Directed Fund – supports the portfolio of 5G mobile networking projects, including Aether (private 5G and edge computing), SD-Core (open 5G mobile core) and SD-RAN (open RAN). Telco, commercial and research deployments rely on these projects, and a $2M US government research grant was just awarded to the project to advance energy savings and sustainability of 5G networks.

P4 Directed Fund – supporting a body of work enabling programmability of the networking dataplane, including P4 Architecture, Language, APIs, Applications and Platforms. This includes open source compilers and stack implementations of programmable network fabrics (SD-Fabric, Stratum), with diverse deployments from cloud to data centers and operator edge networks (e.g. Comcast, Google, SKT, Tencent, and Brazil’s air traffic control system).

Additionally, a new Open Network Models and Interfaces (ONMI) project is hosting ONF’s network modeling and interface projects (OIMT, OTCC, T-API, Wireless xHaul), the output of which various standards organizations continue to rely upon today.

“ONF is pleased to transition our robust portfolio of open source platforms into a set of LF-hosted community-led projects,” said Timon Sloane, general manager, ONF. “With this merger, the ONF’s amazing portfolio of work that has been incubated and advanced over the last decade will naturally graduate into a community-driven open source model leveraging the best practices of the Linux Foundation.”

The ONF / LF merger reflects a change in governance for the projects but leaves in place the community-led collaborative processes for the technical projects to continue to evolve as market needs change. The ONF’s existing Technical Steering Teams (TSTs) leading each project will continue to guide the technical work. The biggest change is that new Governing Boards have been formed to lead each of the new directed funds, giving the community complete authority over the direction of the projects and the application of the approximately $5M in funding that ONF is contributing to financially seed the directed funds. The funds will be used to selectively staff engineering functions for the benefit of the projects, preserving key elements of ONF’s engineering-led model that helped lead to the enduring success of the projects.

“Linux Foundation is merging ONF’s marquee portfolio of broadband, mobile, edge and cloud networking projects under the LF umbrella to help usher in the next phase of community growth,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director, Linux Foundation. “Open source has already achieved a dramatic impact on networking, and by bringing together ONF’s body of work with the broader LF portfolio we’re creating more opportunity for collaboration, synergy and reuse to further fuel the open networking movement.”

Supporting organizations playing leadership roles on the new projects include: Cornell University, Deutsche Telekom, Google, Intel, Netsia, Radisys and Türk Telekom.

All current ONF Members are being welcomed to join the new projects with graceful transition support, including pro rata credits for any remaining ONF membership term that can be applied for joining the new projects. Please visit opennetworking.org for more information and register for the webinar, “ONF Projects Transforming to Full Community-Led Governance”, taking place January 9, 2024 at 7:00 am PST.

CT Bureau