Topics at the conference included hardware and software interoperability requirements, system availability, and platform management as speakers and panelists addressed opportunities and challenges facing designers of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions. The conference also addressed future developments as service providers’ demand for systems based on these standards continues to build rapidly.
“SCOPE Alliance, an organization of the leading Network Equipment Providers, is committed to accelerating the deployment of carrier-grade base platforms for service provider applications. Through collaboration with industry specification bodies and building block vendors, we provide direction and guidance to the ecosystem,” said Chris Wardale, SCOPE Alliance Chairman. “We anticipate that our joint efforts at this conference will drive the discussion on enabling a commercial off-the-shelf ecosystem.”
Each Communications Ecosystem organization focuses on a unique aspect of open standards such as ATCA, standard middleware, and carrier-grade Linux, and complements the work of the other organizations. The organizations are also involved in specification development, interoperability requirements, system availability, and management. Collectively, the net effect of the groups’ work is to promote higher performance and significantly reduce cost and time-to-market for server-based, IP-centric telecom platforms that are future-proofed for continued network evolution.
According to Heavy Reading analyst Simon Stanley, service providers recognize the value of open solutions and demand will continue to broaden significantly. For instance, the ATCA market is expected to grow to $6.8 billion by the end of 2012, representing a compound annual growth rate of 93% since 2007.
“These standards have now reached maturity and mainstream adoption with a strong industry-wide ecosystem that includes all levels of the supply chain” said Stanley. “As we look ahead to developments like improved cooling, higher speed interconnects and migration to new markets and applications, it will be crucial for the ecosystem to continue to come together to identify common goals.”
Industry Support for the Communications Ecosystem
“This conference provides an important forum for the ecosystem to come together and discuss synergies and critical issues like interoperability, standards, and how we can maximize the value that CP-TA member companies can bring to service providers,” said Sven Freudenfeld, president of CP-TA. “The insights we gain will help CP-TA members continue to deliver cost and time-to-market benefits to the ecosystem.”
“Carrier Grade Linux is now the base for nearly every open source-based communication device in the wireless infrastructure. The Communications Ecosystem Conference is a great venue to share what is new in Carrier Grade Linux and how CGL interacts with other technology groups such as OpenSAF and SCOPE”, says Glenn Seiler, leadership council for the CGL Workgroup of Linux Foundation. “CGL launched the 4.0 CGL Specification at the Communications Ecosystem Conference in San Diego in 2007 and we are proud to continue to support this event as a key venue of open systems and open standards.”
“We have all seen open source software play an increasingly important role in the communications industry, and the emergence of OpenSAF reflects the industry demand to increase the use of open source to include SA Forum middleware specifications,” said Alan Meyer, president of the OpenSAF Foundation. “This conference provides a great venue to bring together key suppliers and standards organizations from across the communications ecosystem, demonstrating the growing interest in open, standards-based components.”
“The organizations represented today are key contributors to the collective goal of providing open, powerful, flexible, and evolving solutions,” said Joe Pavlat, PICMG President. PICMG is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the ATCA standard.
“One of the key benefits of a robust COTS ecosystem is that it enables application developers to accelerate their time to market. The Service Availability Forum plays a key role in this ecosystem as it develops, publishes, educates on and promotes open specifications for carrier-grade and mission-critical systems,” said Asif Naseem, SA Forum President. “With a mature set of specifications and commercially available building blocks, the time is ripe for application developers to leverage this ecosystem.”
SCOPE is an industry alliance committed to accelerating the deployment of carrier grade base platforms for service provider applications. Its mission is to help, enable and promote the availability of open carrier grade base platforms based on Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) hardware / software and Free Open Source Software (FOSS) building blocks, and to promote interoperability to better serve Service Providers and consumers.