tele.com. Linux Goes Public. The hot operating system has moved into next-generation routers for service provider networks
[Apologies if this article has already been posted. djane]
teledotcom.com
by Jeremiah Caron. Jeremiah Caron is executive industry
editor for tele.com. He can be reached at
jcaron@cmp.com.
The public network may be the next phase in the dramatic rise
of the Linux operating system (OS), which, its proponents say,
is more flexible and adaptable than its proprietary
counterparts. PThe phenomenon of Linux, an open
source-code version of the Unix OS, continues to surpass
analyst expectations, attract big-name software developers
and bring cheer to the hearts of Microsoft Corp. bashers
everywhere. Now, hoping to exploit the Linux love-fest among
network applications developers working for Internet service
providers (ISPs), one company is even basing its
next-generation router on the freely available OS.
NBase-Xyplex (Littleton, Mass.), the networking group of
MRV Communications Inc. (Chatsworth, Calif.), plans to
deliver the OSR8040 Linux switch router in the third quarter
of this year at a starting price of $300,000. The OSR8040, a
service provider-class box with a 40 Gbit/s switching matrix,
will compete with products from Cisco Systems Inc. (San
Jose, Calif.), Juniper Networks Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.)
and others.
Linux was originally developed in 1991 by Linus Torvalds,
then a Finnish graduate student, and distributed freely over the
Internet. Technologists agree that the system has become
rock-solid thanks to constant debugging by thousands of
programmers worldwide. Now it has a very real air of
legitimacy: Powerhouse companies such as IBM and Oracle
Corp. (Redwood Shores, Calif.) are supporting Linux by
porting their applications to it. In perhaps the ultimate
compliment, Microsoft is reportedly creating a strategy aimed
at beating it.
Linux's attractiveness for routing, according to NBase-Xyplex,
is linked to demands from ISPs for more customization
flexibility than what is afforded by traditionally "closed" routing
OSs such as Cisco's Internetworking Operating System
(IOS). NBase-Xyplex will provide open application program
interfaces (APIs) to the Linux kernel--the fundamental piece of
code containing all of Linux's key ingredients--to allow
software upgrades and changes that are easier and quicker
than with proprietary OSs. The thinking is that Linux will
appeal to providers seeking competitive advantages through
service differentiation. "An open API approach gives us a lot,"
says Brandon Ross, director of network engineering for ISP
MindSpring Enterprises Inc. (Atlanta), citing simplified and
automated access port provisioning routines as one potential
benefit.
While NBase-Xyplex based its decision to use a Linux kernel
for its router OS on a firm technological foundation, a
"what-the-heck" factor also came into play, says MaryJane
Gruninger, vice president of engineering and research and
development for NBase-Xyplex. "If the question is, 'How can
I compete against a Cisco or a Lucent?,' one way is to take
advantage of all the brains out there developing applications
for Linux so that we can be more competitive with special
features."
Linux will help create capabilities that providers want,
Gruninger says, such as the ability to customize services at the
routing level to tie billing applications to lower-level services
for per-packet accounting; to improve security and traffic
management through very precise packet filtering; and to
implement automated subscriber management procedures.
These concepts resonate with ISPs and upstart providers of
local data services, who are looking to get more control of
their networks' relationship with customers. "Today's routers
are really dumb; they cannot reliably implement policy-based
routing services because they were designed for
destination-address forwarding," says Mike Gaddis, chief
technology officer of Savvis Communications Corp. (St.
Louis), a competitive local service provider. "Policy-based
routing is hard to implement effectively, but it is needed. The
winner is the one who gets it out first."
NBase-Xyplex also asserts that a Linux kernel, used as an
application-layer platform in combination with a core
route-processing engine, offers performance at least as robust
as that of the market-leading systems, thanks to the OS's
adeptness at multiprocessing. Last month, the company
announced a Linux-based implementation of multiprocessing
border gateway protocol (BGP4), a prominent Internet routing
protocol that it claims will scale better than existing systems as
it offloads tasks to multiple processors.
Still, because Linux has no real track record as a routing
software system, service providers will be cautious about
introducing Linux routers into their networks, say service
provider technologists. "ISPs run very public production
networks; [Cisco's] IOS has been around for 10 years," says
Mark Fedor, vice president of engineering for PSINet Inc.
(Herndon, Va.).
Linux, however, is already rapidly finding a more conventional
way into the public network: as a server operating system for
Web-hosting applications. Mainly because of these
Web-hosting deployments, Linux accounted for 17 percent of
the total server software market last year, according to a study
from International Data Corp. (IDC, Framingham, Mass.).
(See "Penguin Power.") In service provider networks, Linux
deployment is "growing fast, especially in the middle tier," says
Joseph Skorupa, an analyst with market watchers Ryan
Hankin Kent Inc. (San Francisco).
While nobody expects Linux to unseat Cisco's IOS soon as
the industry-leading routing software system, many are
watching NBase-Xyplex's effort closely in the hope that a
solid implementation might nudge Cisco toward a more open
source-code philosophy. "That would be nice," says
MindSpring's Ross.
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