Two organizations sign a formal MoU to collaborate in developing LSO framework and open APIs to speed automation and agility.

October 11, 2017

2 Min Read

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- MEF and the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP), a Linux Foundation Project today announced a Memorandum of Understanding designed to accelerate the rollout of agile, assured, and orchestrated services across automated, virtualized, and interconnected networks. Service providers, cloud providers, and enterprises are challenged to provide on-demand services profitably and competitively, while maximizing existing investments. Together, MEF and ONAP will leverage the resources of their more than 250 combined member companies to speed open source-based SDN/NFV and LSO (Lifecycle Service Orchestration) innovation that will power a new generation of dynamic network services optimized for the digital economy.

As part of the agreement, MEF is now an associate member of ONAP and The Linux Foundation, and The Linux Foundation is an auditing member of MEF. The organizations will jointly work on LSO Framework development and the creation of standardized open LSO APIs designed to automate the entire lifecycle for services orchestrated across multiple provider networks and multiple network technology domains. These efforts will be supported by LSO Hackathons at MEF17 and several MEF-hosted events in 2018 that will enable open source community developers and networking professionals to develop LSO-SDN-NFV based solutions that can be used in open source projects and in development of MEF LSO API specifications.

The collaboration between MEF and ONAP extends the work that MEF is already undertaking with The Linux Foundation’s OpenDaylight (ODL) and Platform for Network Data Analytics (PNDA) Projects. More details on collaborative initiatives will be shared in coming months.

"ONAP was formed with the understanding that the creation of a comprehensive framework for real-time, policy-driven software automation of virtual network functions could best be achieved by sharing and combining industry resources," said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager of Networking & Orchestration, The Linux Foundation. "As part of this vision, The Linux Foundation is integrating our open networking initiatives more closely with industry associations like MEF. MEF and ONAP hold a common vision for the end-to-end automation of service provider networks. We are pleased to work with them to combine resources and minimize fragmentation to accelerate the transformation and automation of networks with SDN and NFV."

"MEF is delighted to work with The Linux Foundation’s ONAP Project on a common goal of advancing orchestration of dynamic services that provide unprecedented user and application-directed control over network resources and service capabilities," said Pascal Menezes, CTO, MEF. "We see great value in harmonizing open source and open standards work to speed development of open LSO APIs and realize their implementation as quickly as possible."

MEF

Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP)

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