ON.Lab, The Linux Foundation establish CORD as formal project

Open Networking Lab (ON.Lab) and The Linux Foundation have launched a new open source project based on the Central Office Re-architected as a Data Center (CORD) initiative. CORD attempts to bring cloud- and data center-inspired virtualization to access networks.

On.Lab and industry players, particularly AT&T, have put significant resources behind CORD as a use case for On.Lab's Open Network Operating System (ONOS; see "ON.Lab, backed by AT&T and NTT, offers open source SDN operating system"). The effort has evolved to bring open source concepts and virtualization to residential, enterprise, and mobile access network implementations (see, for example, "AT&T, ON.Lab to lead CORD proof-of-concept demonstration" and "ONOS develops open CORD reference implementation"). The effort expects to leverage merchant silicon, white boxes, and open source platforms such as ONOS, OpenStack, Docker, and XOS.

Besides AT&T, other service providers connected with CORD include China Unicom, NTT Communications, SK Telecom, and Verizon. That group now includes Google which, along with Radisys and Samsung Electronics Co., just joined both CORD and the ONOS Project.

"Service providers are eager to leverage new open source technologies and platforms to transform their infrastructure," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. "CORD provides service providers with a framework to re-architect their traditional central offices into next-generation data centers, using new technologies like SDN, NFV, and cloud technologies that are going mainstream."

Google will host the first CORD Summit on July 29 at Google Sunnyvale Tech Corner Campus in California.

"CORD has the potential to significantly improve the economics and agility of access networks globally," said Ankur Jain, principal engineer at Google. "We are excited to join CORD, host its inaugural summit, and work closely with leading ecosystem players to bring greater scalability and rapid innovation to access networks."

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