Category Archives: Open Source Software

Forum created to push optical SDNs

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SDN start-up Vello Systems this week said it is forming an organization to promote open source and software-defined networking principles to optical enterprise networking.

Vello's Open Source Optical (OSO) Forum includes optical component and system vendors, software companies, channel partners and end users looking to spur the adoption of open source optical solutions in data center and enterprise networks, similar to the SDN and merchant silicon trend in Ethernet networking. The initial members of OSO include Vello, Accelink, CoAdna, CrossFiber, O-Net, PacketLight and Pacnet, with more organizations to be announced over the coming weeks, Vello says.

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The group is proposing OpenFlow-based software interoperability among multiple optical products designed for the enterprise and data center so customers avoid lock-in with a specific vendor. Some of the leading optical vendors are Ciena, Adva and Cisco and they are not currently involved in OSO, but Ciena speaks frequently at SDN conferences -- like last week's Open Networking Summit and last month's OpenDaylight Summit -- and all three are members of SDN standards consortia Open Networking Foundation and the OpenDaylight Project.

Of the OSO Forum initiators, only Vello is involved in either of those consortia, as a member of the Open Networking Foundation.

Nonetheless, OSO says it will provide and maintain community-supported open source software that will run on a variety of merchant-optical systems from current and future OSO members. This open source code will reside on the consortium's web site, and any software that supports OpenFlow 1.4 can also be used to run OSO-based optical solutions, Vello says.

The OSO software will include optical extensions that are part of OpenFlow 1.4, which were authored and contributed by Vello in the ONF. Vello said it will also make the optical extensions generally available for other OpenFlow network controller frameworks.

Sources say the OSO formed autonomously rather than within the ONF because of the large optical hardware vendor presence and influence within the ONF. Also, apart from Vello, none of the OSO vendors are ONF members.

Porting OSO software onto existing optical systems will make them compatible with OpenFlow controller and application frameworks, Vello says. But OSO Forum members may also choose to build native OpenFlow 10G/40G/100G 1RU "pizza box" optical systems or other appliances for data center interconnection and optimizing network paths based on application. Vello this week also unveiled software, called Precision Application Networking, specifically for these types of appliances, which it expects to debut in the second quarter for 10G and in the second half of the year for 100G.

OSO-based systems can be deployed and configured directly alongside OpenFlow-based Ethernet switches from a single screen, eliminating the requirement of dedicated optical system configuration management, Vello says.

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Forum created to push optical SDNs

RIT launches nation’s first minor in free and open source software and free culture

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Rochester, N.Y. (PRWEB) March 07, 2014

Responding to student interest and a growing industry demand for workers with such skills, Rochester Institute of Technology is launching the nations first interdisciplinary minor in free and open source software and free culture.

Starting in Fall 2014, RITs School of Interactive Games and Media will offer the minor in free and open source software (FOSS) and free culture for students who want to develop a deep understanding of the processes, practices, technologies, and financial, legal and societal impacts of the FOSS and free culture movements.

As students progress through the minor, they acquire domain knowledge, hands-on experience and community interaction skills, said Stephen Jacobs, professor of interactive games and media and associate director of RITs Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity (MAGIC). Students can use their new skills to become leaders, as well as contributors.

While propriety softwaresuch as Microsoft Officeis developed, controlled and restricted by organizations, free open source softwaresuch as Libre Officegives users the right and ability to freely use, modify and share the software itself. The free culture movement, exemplified by Creative Commons, allows for the same type of flexible use rights for creative works, such as music or graphics. When companies want to take advantage of the opportunities to modify and/or redistribute FOSS software, which is often more reliable, secure and less expensive, they turn to experts in FOSS culture, process and licenses.

Jacobs designed RITs first FOSS course around student-created games for the One Laptop per Child program in 2008. As their software ran on the laptops, Red Hat Inc., a leading provider of open source software solutions, donated 25 XO laptops for student use in the class. Red Hat has continued to collaborate with FOSS programs at RIT, including sponsoring the humanitarian program in Jacobs FOSSBox Lab.

RIT has long been a strong proponent of open source, not just in technology but also in the free sharing of ideas and knowledge, both of which are key factors in Red Hats involvement with RIT, said Tom Callaway, in charge of University Outreach at Red Hat.

RITs FOSS minor, driven by Professor Jacobs, helps address the role that free and open source software plays in todays world. Nearly every form of technology innovation, from gaming consoles to cloud computing, relies on open source code as a fundamental building block. Open source is helping define the way forward for digital society at large, Callaway said.

RITs 15-credit-hour minor, open to undergraduates across the university, includes three core courses from the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts. Students also select two elective courses that can be chosen from a list of computing and liberal arts courses. Electives from additional disciplines will likely be added over time.

Someone who doesnt know how to code can go all the way through this minor, said Jacobs. In required technical classes, students with different skills will work in teams to build a common project.

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RIT launches nation’s first minor in free and open source software and free culture

Broadcom Announces Open Switch Pipeline Specification Targeting Growing SDN Application Ecosystem

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OpenFlow 1.3.1 Compliant Reference Platform Enables Scalable, High Performance Applications on Widely Deployed Switch Architecture

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Open Networking Summit, 2014 - Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM), a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications, today announced the OpenFlow Data Plane Abstraction (OF-DPA) v1.0 specification, software and API, the industry's first openly published implementation of physical switch hardware pipeline abstraction for the Open Networking Foundation's (ONF) OpenFlow 1.3.1 Switch. For more news, visit Broadcom's Newsroom.

OpenFlow, one of the methods for implementing software-defined networking (SDN), enables a standardized way of delivering a centralized, programmable network that can dynamically address changing application requirements. The OF-DPA v1.0 specification, software and API can be used to implement popular use cases such as network virtualization, multi-tenant networks and traffic engineering with higher scale and performance. For more details, view Broadcom's white paper, "Engineered Elephant Flows for Boosting Application Performance in Large Scale CLOS Networks."

"The openly published OF-DPA specification, software and API exposes OpenFlow compliant programming constructs over Broadcom's StrataXGS Ethernet Switch Series," said Ram Velaga, Broadcom Senior Vice President & General Manager, Network Switch."By mapping the OpenFlow 1.3.1 pipeline to high bandwidth and high density switch silicon like the StrataXGS Trident Series, we are enabling SDN applications to achieve high performance and scale."

The OpenFlow Switch in the ONF 1.3.1 specification defines a pipeline that contains multiple tables, each table containing multiple flow entries. The OpenFlow pipeline processing defines how packets interact with these tables. The OF-DPA v1.0 physical switch hardware pipeline abstraction is an implementation of the OpenFlow 1.3.1 Switch optimized for Broadcom StrataXGS Ethernet Switch devices. The OF-DPA v1.0 software and API enables OpenFlow 1.3.1 agents and controllers to access multiple tables implemented in Broadcom switch devices. The intent is to facilitate general availability of production-quality OpenFlow 1.3.1 switches from OEM and ODM vendors as well as provide a reference platform for use by end users and in academic and industrial research networks.

"OpenFlow multi-table-based programming of the switch hardware can enable implementation of important dynamic provisioning use cases at scale and help lower OPEX," said Akio Iijima NEC Corporation's Chief Product Architect, Converged Network Division. "The open nature of the Broadcom OF-DPA solution and implementation on open switch hardware designs can foster a rich ecosystem of multi-vendor switches. Such switches can be managed by advanced OpenFlow Controllers such as the NEC ProgrammableFlow Controller."

"Big Switch Networks is excited to support Broadcom's OF-DPA initiative because we believe it energizes both the bare metal and open SDN ecosystems," said Rob Sherwood, BigSwitch Networks Chief Technology Officer, "OF-DPA provides open programmable access to 'fast-path' packet-forwarding hardware and is the perfect complement to our Open Network Linux and Indigo SDN agent open source software stack."

Broadcom's OF-DPA v1.0 reference platform includes a comprehensive OpenFlow 1.3.1compliant specification, software and API for the Broadcom physical switch hardware pipeline abstraction, and an application development kit. The OF-DPA v1.0 software and API can be used with any OpenFlow 1.3.1 agent and controller and is layered over Broadcom's currently available switch software development kit (SDK). The reference platform also includes a turnkey package with an open source reference agent (based on Indigo 2.0) on ODM platforms and hardware systems based on Broadcom-contributed OCP Open Switch Specification. The turnkey package is integrated with the open source RYU OpenFlow 1.3.1 Controller.

OF-DPA Version 1.0 Key Features

- Provides an ONF OpenFlow 1.3.1 compliant switch pipeline and APIs for modifying and querying flow table (e.g., Layer 2 table, Layer 3 table, access control list table) and group table entries, as well as for configuring ports, queues, and VXLAN overlay logical ports. - Includes OF-DPA v1.0 specification, API library, application development kit, and programmer's guide, all released under the Apache 2.0 license. - Supports SDN use cases including virtual tenant networks (VTNs), network virtualization using overlays, and traffic engineering. - Future OF-DPA versions are slated to support additional Broadcom switch features required in service provider and carrier class applications.

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Broadcom Announces Open Switch Pipeline Specification Targeting Growing SDN Application Ecosystem

Free Open Source Software

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"Because open source software features open code, more programmers are able to view the code, create new functionality, and fix bugs. This follows the same natural way that science has developed over time."

Taoism of Open Source; Chen Nan Yang; September 29, 2007.

This is a public Wiki about Free Open Source Software (FOSS), sometimes also called Free/Libre Open Source Software, Free Software, or just Open Source.

All FOSS licenses require that the software remain available to use, modify, and distribute at no cost. Most FOSS licenses also include kind of a lawyer's version of the Golden Rule, requiring that all software modifications, such as bug fixes and enhancements, must also be made available under the same license - with permission to use, modify, and distribute at no cost. This naturally creates living software, continually growing the value for all. These licenses are good at generating the trust that leads to large and sustainable communities. The great majority of FOSS is released under licenses including this give-back condition.

FOSS is increasingly the go-to standard for operating systems to user applications, for individuals to large enterprises. It helps reduce costs, avoid lock-in, increase productivity, enhance security, and improve standards compliance. With the best long-term investment protection, FOSS is the lowest risk choice for software systems today. More information can be found in the following sections.

Additional information can be found at the following pages.

Commercial Open Source Software (COSS) can contain Free Open Source Software components, however limits availability of key functionality to closed proprietary software, and therefore is described on this site only on the COSS page.

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Free Open Source Software

The Commercial Case for Open Source Software

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This post is written in association with Pentaho, a commercial open-source (COSS) provider of reporting, analysis, dashboard, data mining and data integration software.

The history of open source has already been written and rewritten a couple of times, so there's no need to go back to Genesis chapter one and revisit Linus Torvalds' "just a hobby, won't be big" comments too often.

But open source became more than the sum of its parts and the hobbyists grew successful in domains that traditionally belonged to their proprietary relatives.

Historical Note: If you do still want the history of open source, then the YouTube hosted Revolution OS is about 100 minutes of the best open development commentary you will find.

Open source grew up, we know that part. With a rich pedigree of success in the server room, open platforms eventually moved upwards through the commercial sector and across to government in many developed nations.

What open source in these (and other mission-critical implementations) demands is not only the strong active developer community that typifies any open code base - it also very often needs a level of expert support and maintenance that works at a more formalized level than that which is available for free through the community. This especially applies to teams that are trying to solve hairy' problems for which skills are in short supply, like blending and analyzing diverse, big' data sets.

Support and maintenance are important, but there's another factor here.

Locked Down, Demarcated Openness More specifically (and more technically), open code is built with inherently dynamic libraries that are subject to change and community contribution at any time. However, commercial versions of open source software are always locked down and demarcated at the point of sale and therefore not subject to these dynamic changes.

This means that when organizations like NASA and the Met Office (arguably mission critical') use commercial open source software, they are able to define the exact static form and function of applications at the point of installation.

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The Commercial Case for Open Source Software

Accelerating the Network with Open Source Software, Erik Ekudden | OpenDaylight Summit 2014 – Video

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Accelerating the Network with Open Source Software, Erik Ekudden | OpenDaylight Summit 2014
The OpenDaylight Project is an example of how openness, collaboration and innovation are changing the way networks develop. Open Source projects are helping ...

By: opendaylightproject

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Accelerating the Network with Open Source Software, Erik Ekudden | OpenDaylight Summit 2014 - Video