Stratum provides foundation for ONF’s Next-Gen SDN initiative
As a Contributor to the Stratum™ project, PLVision is proud to share the ONF’s announcement that it has been released as open source. Stratum is now available under the Apache 2.0 open source license, and Stratum is forming the foundation for ONF’s next-generation software defined networking (SDN) work.
Stratum is an open source, silicon-independent switch operating system for software defined networks that runs on a variety of switching silicon and various whitebox switch platforms. Stratum avoids the vendor lock-in found with today’s data planes that feature proprietary silicon interfaces and closed software APIs that tend to lock operators into using a specific hardware technology. Stratum makes possible easy integration of new devices into operators’ networks, making Stratum the foundation for delivering a minimal production-ready distribution for white box switches.
The strict contractual relationship of a P4-based interface between a Stratum switch and its controller ensure that the switch can be swapped with a spectrum of alternatives (even those with different switching silicon from a diversity of vendors) without need for controller modification or network retest and validation. Never before has it been possible to grow and upgrade installations and adopt the latest advancements in switching silicon at the speed of cloud development.
Stratum also exposes a set of next-generation SDN interfaces including P4, P4Runtime, OpenConfig, gNMI and gNOI, enabling programmability of forwarding behaviors, zero-touch operations and full automated life-cycle management. This makes Stratum a key enabler for ONF’s next-generation SDN initiative.
PLVision is a part of the Stratum Ecosystem
Stratum has been incubated since March 2018 when Google released seed code for the project. In the intervening year, a set of collaborating organizations have been working collectively on advancing the software to make it ready for easier consumption as open source, and to support a diversity of silicon from multiple vendors. Stratum has also become the foundation layer for ONF’s Next-Gen SDN initiative with the backing of this robust community supporting the project.
As a contributor to the Stratum Project, PLVision joins the team of prominent industry leaders including Google, Barefoot (Intel), Broadcom, Edgecore Networks, Delta Electronics, Inventec, STORDIS, NoviFlow and NTT Communications.
“Stratum is the only open switch OS for the realization of the Next-Gen SDN for white box model, and PLVision is happy to leverage our solid expertise in SDN and P4 to make it available to the public and ready to use,” said Leonid Khedyk, Chief Technology Officer at PLVision. “Being a part of this ONF initiative is highly instrumental in satisfying the growing market demand from white box ODM and silicon vendors who approach us for landing Stratum on their platforms.”
Leonid presents Stratum’s extended capabilities at ONF Connect on September 11 in Santa Clara, CA.
Source: Open Networking Foundation