AT&T says this week’s release of the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) code into open source is a call to action for SDN developers to take an active role in the software-centric evolution taking place in the telecom industry.
Chris Rice, ONAP chair and SVP of AT&T Labs, said in a blog post that ONAP puts network developers in a position to drive the development of new services and applications.
“It gives them access to capabilities they’ve never had before. And it’s not just our network,” Rice said. “It’s the worldwide network. ONAP’s members include the largest global service providers and technology leaders. Currently, the ONAP member carriers serve about 38% of the world’s mobile subscribers.”
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Joining Rice on the ONAP executive team is Yachen Wang, deputy director of the Network Technology Department at China Mobile Research Institute, and Vincent Danno, director of wireline standards of the innovation technical & marketing at Orange. Wang will serve as ONAP’s president and Danno will serve as treasurer.
On Wednesday, the ONAP Project released its code and documentation to the community for increased collaboration.
ONAP also introduced newly elected officers of the project and new members, including Platinum member Reliance Jio; Silver members Ciena, Microsoft, New H3C Technologies and Wind River; and Associate member Open Networking Foundation. All of these companies will join the community in working on a shared framework for automation of virtual network functions.
The opening of ONAP code and growth in membership follows the late February announcement of the project's formation. ONAP’s code base is production-ready and in use. Developers can access it at https://git.onap.org/.
What drove the emergence of ONAP was the Linux Foundation’s merger of AT&T’s ECOMP platform and The Linux Foundation’s Open-O open source networking project.
“This brought two of the largest open source platforms together,” Rice said. “The merger created a global and open operating system that thrives on open collaboration.”