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Stratum - ONF Launches Major New Open Source SDN Switching Platform with Support from GoogleMENLO PARK, Calif., March 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced the strategy for a set of next-generation SDN interfaces and, along with support from Google, the launch of Stratum™, an open source project to implement an open reference platform for a truly "software defined" data plane. Founding Members: Cloud Providers: Google, Tencent Additionally, Google is open sourcing the first revision of source code for Stratum, helping to launch the project with a solid base of software that originates from Google's production network. Delivering on the "Software Defined" Vision Furthermore, whereas OpenFlow® only defined mechanisms to control the forwarding behavior, it is now possible to completely redefine the forwarding behavior as well as manage all configuration and operational aspects of the data plane. Next-generation SDN interfaces include four major functional capabilities, exposing all aspects of data plane control and management, including: Pipeline Definition Pipeline Control Device Configuration Device Operations The impact of supporting comprehensive control and network management includes:
There are three diametrically opposed business goals being addressed by this initiative. Often it is possible to achieve only 2 out of 3 of these ambitions when attempting to affect chage, but this initiative aims to deliver on all three, including:
About the Stratum Project: Stratum provides a new paradigm that will:
Stratum will enable an ecosystem of simple "thin" forwarding devices with a wide multi-vendor diversity of underlying switching silicon, as well as provide a vehicle for "thick" traditional switches to support programmable pipelines and to be more easily ported between different systems and different switching silicon. Leveraging the power of P4 to document the logical pipeline, Stratum-enabled devices will be able to declare a "contract" defining precisely what forwarding behavior they support, expressing this in the P4 language. Furthermore, the Stratum project toolchain will include programmatic verification of the 'contract' offered by each data plane offering. As a result, each forwarding device will be able to unambiguously declare and verify what behavior it supports. This elimination of ambiguity will allow operators to rapidly adopt the latest generations of switching silicon into their networks without the need for exhaustive requalification nor modification of their operating environments to accommodate the small deviations between devices and manufacturers that exists today. Stratum is envisioned to become a key software component of future SDN solutions. Stratum implements the latest next-generation SDN interfaces and does not embed control protocols, but instead is designed to support either an external Network OS, or embedded on-switch management and control (e.g. BGP). In this way, Stratum will support a variety of use cases and a diversity of market applications. Use Case 1 - Cloud SDN Data Plane: The initial code base for Stratum has been provided by Google, who is donating code from their production codebase to kick-start the project. Google also intends to take Stratum into their production networks by pairing it with their internal SDN controller to manage and control Stratum-based white box switches. Others with proprietary controllers can do the same, leveraging Stratum for custom SDN networks. Use Case 2 - Cloud SDN Fabric Platform: ONOS® plus Trellis™, two open source projects hosted by the ONF, will natively run over Stratum as a P4 data plane switching layer. Together this will provide a complete open source solution for programmable SDN data center spine-leaf fabrics. Use Case 3 - CORD: CORD®, a comprehensive platform for operator edge clouds, runs over Trellis and ONOS, which in turn will optionally run over Stratum. Combined with Stratum, CORD is on a path to support instantiation of VNFs in a programmable networking fabric, vastly increasing the scalability and cost efficiency of edge clouds. Use Case 4 - Thick Switches with Embedded Control: While optimized to provide a 'thin switch' solution, Stratum can also be used with an embedded NOS running within the same switch. Dubbed a 'thick switch', this configuration enables the replication of the traditional model of embedded management and control (e.g. Netconf, SNMP, BGP) all into a single system. This approach allows traditionally-structured, tightly integrated systems to be built leveraging Stratum and the latest SDN interfaces. In this way, the common work on Stratum can benefit both thin and thick switch designs, ensuring the work benefits the broadest possible community. Building Upon to Other Open Source Networking Projects Timeline The complete release of the project under the Apache 2.0 open source license is expected in early 2019. At that time, multiple interoperable solutions leveraging a choice of silicon options are expected to be available from a number of different white box suppliers. Executive Perspectives: "Today, we take it for granted that network operators choose and customize the control plane software for their network; the largest cloud providers and service providers have made the leap already. Stratum takes things one step further and hands them the keys to the forwarding plane too," said Nick McKeown, Professor at Stanford University and co-founder of ONF. "I believe the network should be as easy to program as a server. By lifting protocols out of hardware and into software, we will unleash a Cambrian explosion of innovation in networking, just as we have seen in compute. Because of its use of P4Runtime, Stratum opens the door for every network operator to tailor their network to best meet their needs, while benefiting from a rich open-source ecosystem and a choice of silicon providers." "Stratum is filling a number of critical gaps to fulfill the ultimate vision of SDN," said Guru Parulkar, executive director for the ONF. "It makes the data plane easily interchangeable as well as exposing full programmability of the forwarding behavior. This will make available a breadth of choice for operators, and ultimately enables unbounded innovation." Additional commentary by founding members can be found here. About the ONF: About Stratum:
View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/stratum---onf-launches-major-new-open-source-sdn-switching-platform-with-support-from-google-300612096.html SOURCE Open Networking Foundation |