The Linux Foundation today released an update to its Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) specification. The primary changes incorporated into CGL 4.0 are alignment with the SCOPE Alliance's Carrier Grade Profile, and tighter requirements around compliance.

The Linux Foundation was formed in January, via the merger of two top Linux foundations — the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), and the Free Standards Group (FSG). Carrier Grade Linux was one of OSDL's key projects; the five-year old standard consists of over 250 individual requirements that cover seven categories of Performance, Hardware, Standards, Serviceability, Availability, Security, and Clustering.

The SCOPE Alliance is an industry association made up of TEMs (telecommunications and equipment manufacturers) and NEPs (network equipment providers) that are committed to accelerating the deployment of carrier grade base platforms for service provider applications. SCOPE — whose mission is to help, enable, and promote the availability of open carrier grade base platforms based on COTS (commercial off the shelf) hardware and open-source software — has created a profile of the Carrier Grade Specification that specifies priorities for the individual requirements based on their own equipment requirements. A major part of the new CGL 4.0 specification is the alignment of the specification with the SCOPE Alliance profile. This has the benefit of helping to ensure that the CGL Specification is meeting the needs of its primary users, the TEMs.

The new CGL 4.0 specification assigned priorities to the requirements with key input from the SCOPE Alliance profile to ensure that any company registering their Linux software as CGL compliant implemented all of the mandatory requirements. The CGL 4.0 categories of requirements are Mandatory, Desired and Roadmap items.

Previously any Linux distribution that met even a few of the requirements could claim compliance. But the new Specification requires inclusion of all Priority 1, or Mandatory, requirements (there are 135 specific Mandatory requirements) before a distribution can claim its product is CGL compliant.

Leslie Guth, SCOPE Alliance marketing co-chair and board member, stated, “SCOPE and the Linux Foundation are both committed to accelerating the deployment of carrier-grade base platforms based on open industry specifications.”

“With the cooperation of the Linux Foundation since, we've worked to align the CGL Specification with our released Carrier Grade profile and we look forward to benefits such as faster time to market that interoperable commercial off-the-shelf building blocks bring,” added Gruth.

According to Glenn Seiler, Steering Committee chairperson for the Carrier Grade Workgroup, “This release of the Specification has a significant effect on the viability of the specification and ensures that when an equipment provider specifies Carrier Grade Linux there is a consistent standard for what that means. The inclusion of mandatory requirements is a major step and will have an impact in the growth and continued adoption of the CGL specification.”

In addition, the CGL is being incorporated into the LSB (Linux Standard Base). Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation, stated, “With the publication of CGL 4.0, The Linux Foundation has re-chartered the CGL as a Linux Standard Base workgroup. We look forward to working with CGL members as well as the rest of [Linux Foundation] members and the larger Linux community in integrating carrier-grade requirements into the LSB process.”

The new CGL workgroup of the LSB will focus on defining the necessary interfaces and modules to enable the testing and certification of carrier grade features in Linux distributions.

Full details of the CGL 4.0 registration process will be released in the near future. Further information is available on the Linux Foundation's website.

 
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