The show symbolizes a major strategic shift for ONF - the organization's initial work plan based primarily on its OpenFlow agreement, but after vendors faced restrictions (protocols, chips, etc.) that adopted OpenFlow, the shift from last year to Barefoot Initiated P4 open source architecture.
Today, the organization's goal is to publicize support for P4 among several network leaders, with Broadcom, the major provider of commercial switch chips, purportedly expressed interest in P4.
However, until now, Cisco, the leading supplier of ASIC-based networking systems, has not yet said whether it is interested in P4. ONF is looking to capitalize on new open source software to create so-called 'White Box Network' OEMs such as Quanta and Delta - the ecosystem.
ONF's open-source code is still in its infancy for the 'edge-cloud' form of network operators are expected to deploy. The so-called 'Edge-Cloud' goal is to have more open and lower-cost offices End (CO) connectivity solution to replace operators' current implementation of systems that are mainly composed of complex combinations of ASICs and proprietary protocols.
As the trend shifts toward P4, ONF's existing code to access the network is already available for on-site testing, but the software for the mobile core network is still in the lab phase and takes about a year or two to test.
Timon Sloane, vice president of marketing and ecosystems at ONF, believes that 'we are at a very interesting turning point,' and he calls the latest presentation SDN 2.0.
The latest technology show, he said, is 'The Edge of the Future - A Microcosm of the Cloud Network' that incorporates SDN standards such as ETSI Network Functional Virtualization (NFV).
20180206_ONF_NT01P1 Telecom operator-led organizations have proposed a number of open source initiatives in the hope of meeting the needs of decentralized edge-of-cloud networks (Source: ONF)
Farewell to OpenFlow SDN Find 'second spring'?
Sloane said: 'We have benefited greatly from OpenFlow, but because of its limitations, we have to move strategically to P4 and P4 implementations to solve the problem in a more comprehensive manner.' "He added that ONF will No longer take the initiative to develop the agreement.
Operators like Google and China Mobile continue to use OpenFlow to access data ASIC feed-forward pipelines, however, they do not have access to all of the features and, unlike P4, they can not program pipelines .
"The OpenFlow results are indeterminate and there are subtle differences in systems that require minor adjustments to different ASICs and this hinders the ability to attract multiple vendors P4 is more certain and complete Define the feedforward pipeline.
The P4 code is now available as an open source code and was first demonstrated in September last year and the latest in MWC is the first to use a system from multiple vendors ONF plans to make another A technology show invites at least two chipmakers to participate.
Startup Barefoot co-founded the chip with P4 Open Source Project Cavium and Mellanox modified the existing firmware to support P4.
Broadcom has so far been committed to making its switch programming interface easier to access and released an open source Table API for it last week. Sloane said the move is a step in the right direction, opening up its feed-forward platform , But not yet fully reconfigurable.
Compile: Susan Hong