Tightening the cable industry’s ties to open source, CableLabs said it has booted up two projects linked to OpenStack, an operating system for the cloud.
-SNAPS-Boot will prepare servers for OpenStack, enabling operators to install Linux on their servers and prepare them for OpenStack installation with a single command.
-SNAPS-OpenStack installer aims to bring up OpenStack on running servers using a containerized version of the OpenStack software.
They also intend to drive product interoperability, Randy Levensalor, lead architect, wired technologies at CableLabs, explained in this blog post.
CableLabs, he added, developed the new software with Aricent.
Both link back to the overarching SNAPS program at CableLabs that will underpin virtualization projects and deployments that implement software-defined networking and network functions virtualization.
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Those projects are also entering view as operators and vendors start to get a fix on a new generation of virtualized Converged Cable Access Platform products that put key functions in software that run on off-the-shelf hardware and represent a pivot away from purpose-built hardware.
CableLabs, Levensalor explained, “spearheaded the SNAPS project to fill in gaps in the open source community to ease the adoption of SDN/NFV with our cable members” in part by encouraging interoperability for traditional and software-based services. Another aims is to seed a group of developers that will create a strong bond with the open source community, and to drive developers to the cable industry.
Looking ahead, the CableLabs exec noted that the R&D group has kicked off talks with the OPNFV Cross Community Continous Integraton (XCI) project to use SNAPS OpenStack as a platform for trying out test tools and virtual network functions. The goal is to conduct a pilot in early 2018.
