Linux Foundation-based open source organization OPNFV welcomed China Telecom, Qualcomm and Samsung to NFV-focused group
The move towards virtualizing network functions continues to draw interest of telecom operators, with the Linux Foundation’s Open Platform for NFV project gaining new members.
The OPNFV Project, which is focused on open source work around network functions virtualization, announced China Telecom, Qualcomm Technologies and Samsung Electronics have joined the organization as “silver” members. The Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communications Systems also jumped on board as an “associate” member.
OPNFV was founded in late 2014, with founding members including the likes of AT&T, China Mobile, Cisco, NTT DoCoMo and Vodafone, and said it now counts 55 member companies with the latest additions.
“Continued growth and diversity among our member roster is a testament to the growing power of open, collaborative development within the networking industry,” said OPNFV director Heather Kirksey. “Together with our existing member base and strong community, these key organizations will help accelerate the adoption of open source NFV.”
RCR Wireless News spoke with Kirksey as part of the NFV/SDN Reality Check video show to get an update on its work in the open-source NFV market and trends coming out of its OPNFV World event.
OPNFV recently released its Colorado reference platform, the third such release from the organization.
OPNFV said Colorado includes updates targeted at accelerating the development of NFV applications and services by enhancing security, IPv6 support, service function chaining, testing VPN capabilities and support for multiple hardware architectures. The organization noted the updates followed collaboration with upstream communities and are integrated into the “automated install/deploy/testing framework.”
The Colorado release also maintains OPNFV’s river-based naming scheme, following the initial Arno release from last year, and the Brahmaputra release from earlier this year.
A recent report from IHS Markit found 81% of service providers surveyed said they plan to deploy NFV by the end of next year, with 100% of those questioned indicating they will deploy NFV “at some point.” Showing the market’s desire to roll out NFV platforms, the survey also found that 58% of operators have deployed or will deploy NFV this year.
“Many carriers in 2016 are moving from their NFV proof-of-concept tests and lab investigations and evaluations to working with vendors that are developing and productizing the software, which is being deployed commercially,” the firm noted.
These early NFV deployments are expected to focus on virtualized enterprise customer premise equipment, which has seen increased importance over the past several years. IHS noted these deployments are favored due to the ability to “assist with revenue generation because it allows operators to replace physical CPEs with software so they can quickly innovate and launch new services.”
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