IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2022 - 10

Open Source
Foundation (ONF), a nonprofit consortium aimed
at driving the transformation of the network
infrastructure and the carrier business models.
During the recent years, OS is being widely used
at different levels in the networking field.
Remarkably, OSN is playing a crucial role in the
design and deployment of next generation networks,
allowing network administrators to propose
flexible schemes for network management.
Flexibility is also at the core of the softwaredefined
networking (SDN) paradigm that, in 2011,
irrupted into the research community and industry.
SDN networks use a logically centralized
device (a.k.a. SDN controller) to monitor all the
network elements using different types of messages,
already defined in the OpenFlow protocol.
This standardized interface provides SDN controllers
with data about the number of packets and
bytes passing through a particular SDN switch,
and global network statistics, such as maximum
link utilization, mean delay, packet loss, etc. This
scheme allows designers to propose efficient algorithms
for traffic engineering, service allocation, or
energy efficiency. Therefore, SDN aims at accelerating
Internet and Cloud innovation while significantly
reducing the costs of building and operating
networks with high levels of reconfiguration.
Among the most relevant SDN-related initiatives,
it is worth mentioning NetFPGA, OpenWrt,
and SatNOGS. The former is focused on the
development of OSH and OSS for the rapid prototyping
of computer network devices. OpenWrt is
a Linux-based OSS running mainly on MCUs with
the goal of replacing proprietary firmware on
closed routers. In turn, SatNOGS is a free software
and OSH platform, aimed at creating a satellite
ground station network. Unfortunately,
SDN solutions for short-range communication
technologies, such as Bluetooth or WiFi, commonly
used by IoT devices, are not available yet.
Despite their many benefits, the transition to
SDN-based networks is taking longer than initially
expected. Budget limitations and reluctance
to change are making network operators
upgrade their infrastructures step by step. In
this vein, the use of OS SDN controllers, network
operating systems and devices, could help to significantly
speed up the adoption of SDN. The following
paragraph reviews some of the most
relevant ones.
10
Currently, it is possible to find a variety of OS
SDN controllers, such as OpenDaylight, Floodlight,
POX, and NOX,among others. The Open Network
Operating System (ONOS) project also provides an
OS SDN controller that supports legacy and nextgeneration
devices while offering scalability, highperformance,
and resiliency on all-size SDN networks.
Regarding other OSN elements, Open
vSwitch provides a multilayer virtual switch allowing
massive network automation through ad-hoc
programmable extensions while also supporting
standard protocols. In turn, the ONetSwitch platform
combines OpenWrt, OpenFlow, and NetFPGA
to allow different development roles to build a
complete networking system.
Software-defined radio (SDR) is a radio communication
system that moves the implementation of
radio system components (e.g., mixers, filters, and
amplifiers) from hardware to software, especially
on the embedded platforms usually employed for
CE devices. Its implementation using heterogeneousmulticore
programmable processors is challenging,
especially when handling computationintensive
tasks. To tackle it, Lobo et al.5 propose a
method to implement radio applications using OSS
tools, such as GNURadio.
Focusing on specific network domains, a set
of OSN platforms have been recently proposed
under the ONF umbrella. The Converged MultiAccess
and Core (COMAC) platform brings convergence
to operators' mobile and broadband
access and core networks. The Central Office
Rearchitected as a Datacenter (CORD) project leverages
SDN, network function virtualization, and
Cloud technologies to build agile datacenters for
the network edge, aimed at improving the endto-end
user experience. SEBA is a lightweight
platform based on a variant of CORD, supporting
several virtualized access technologies at the
edge of the carrier network, including PONs, G.
Fast, or DOCSIS. Based on optical networks, the
Open and Disaggregated Transport Network
(ODTN) project employs disaggregated optical
equipment, as well as open standards and OSS,
to control a multivendor assembly of components
within the scope of data centers. Moreover,
and leveraging the ONOS controller, the
Trellis platform creates a nonblocking fabric
for data centers using white box switching hardware
and OSS. Finally, the SDNet Development
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May/June 2022
