The following Open Networking Foundation (ONF) projects become independent projects under the Linux Foundation (LF):
- 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.
The ONF’s current Technical Steering Teams (TSTs) will remain at the helm of each project, ensuring the continuity of their technical guidance. The significant shift lies in the creation of fresh Governing Boards for each of the newly established directed funds. This move grants the community full control over project direction and the allocation of the approximately $5 million in funding provided by ONF to initiate these directed funds.
“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.”
“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.”
