Broadband Forum and LF Broadband to Advance Open-Source and Open Standards Harmony

Broadband service providers (BSPs) can more easily buy certified and tested equipment for their cloud networks as Broadband Forum and Linux Foundation (LF) Broadband join forces.

The two organizations have been aligning their respective work to ensure open-source software solutions from LF Broadband comply with the relevant carrier grade requirements and technical reports (TRs) from Broadband Forum.

“TRs” are typically an intrinsic part of BSP’s procurement activities seeking solutions from hardware manufacturers and software providers. A new TR will bring all the requirements and recommendations into a single document that facilitates seamless BSP procurement efforts, while future iterations of LF Broadband’s open-source solutions comply with BBF standards.

“As BSPs look to migrate from legacy to multi-vendor cloud environments, this collaboration combines the best of both open standards and open-source software,” said Broadband Forum Board Member and Radisys Corporation Senior Director Integrated Solutions Dr. Francisco Araujo de Carvalho. “This alignment will provide documented, open, hardened, and interoperable APIs that enable BSPs to easily find and deploy de-facto standardized open-source software solutions compatible with any company’s computing hardware.”

The collaboration allows BSPs to purchase trusted open hardware solutions from a community of different suppliers, as they are not tied to a particular vendor. This provides BSPs with a faster time-to-revenue of their solutions and reduced OpEx, CapEx, and maintenance costs, all of which help drive increased service uptake, and decrease customer churn.

“We will now have a single document that will become a Broadband Forum technical report and incorporates alignment of requirements, interfaces, and architecture mapping from both sides,” said Mahir Gunyel, Netsia Director, Technology and Product Strategy and LFBB VOLTHA TST co-chair. “The Broadband Forum and LF Broadband partnership promises a lasting open ecosystem that facilitates interoperability, competitiveness, and adherence to standards.”

LF Broadband, part of Linux Foundation, builds on the success of the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) and supports projects including the SEBA (SDN-enabled broadband access) reference design for building open broadband networks and the VOLTHA (virtual OLT hardware abstraction) open-source project for virtualizing passive optical networking (PON) systems. Both specifications are set to align with Broadband Forum’s carrier grade requirements moving forward.

Thanks to the project, fiber equipment such as Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) can also be integrated using the VOLTHA framework in a CloudCO environment via Broadband Forum specified Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). SEBA supports different access technologies at the edge of the network.

Adtran, Altice Labs, BISDN, Deutsche Telekom, Netsia, Nokia, Radisys Corporation, Türk Telekom, and Vodafone are currently part of the project, ‘Virtual OLT Hardware Abstraction Alignment with CloudCO’, from the Broadband Forum’s Provider Cloud Work Area. The project’s deliverables are set to be published by the end of 2025.

About the Broadband Forum

The Broadband Forum is an industry-driven global standards development organization helping operators, application providers, and vendors deliver better, services-led broadband.

As the industry-recognized center of competence, the Broadband Forum provides an accessible, efficient, and effective community where all broadband stakeholders can collaborate on, develop, and promote open standards and open software. This provides the basis for deployable solutions for the global broadband industry.

The Broadband Forum publishes interoperable standards and open software, has launched certification programs, and promotes industry education. These best practices and models can be adopted to help realize an effective broadband ecosystem that drives a thriving, services-led broadband industry based on global collaboration, open standards, and open source, maximizing value for all stakeholders.

For more information, visit https://www.broadband-forum.org/. For the latest updates, follow Broadband Forum on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

For Press and Analyst inquiries, contact Proactive PR at broadbandforum@proactive-pr.com

About LF Broadband

The LF Broadband Directed Fund was established in late 2023 as an independent fund under the Linux Foundation. LF Broadband supports a collection of projects that transformed broadband networks and the Passive Optical Network (PON) industry, including the SEBA reference design for building open broadband networks, and the VOLTHA open source project for virtualizing multi-vendor PON systems. Learn more at https://lfbroadband.org/.

About Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, OpenChain, OpenSSF, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at www.linuxfoundation.org.

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