Wind River Systems has joined the OpenSAF Foundation, which aims to standardize high-availability (HA), open-source middleware for Linux-based carrier-grade systems. Wind River will contribute to the OpenSAF project, joining founding members Emerson Network Power (ENP), Ericsson, HP, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Sun Microsystems.

The OpenSAF project was launched in 2007, with the release of OpenSAF 1.0 code by Motorola's Embedded Communications Computing Group (ECC). Motorola ECC was then acquired by ENP, which maintained support for the standard. The unofficial group, which had received support from both Wind River and Motorola in the past, morphed into the nonprofit OpenSAF Foundation in January.

OpenSAF architecture

In addition to supporting select SAForum home specs, such as the Application Interface Specification (AIS), OpenSAF is also aligned with the requirements of the Scope Alliance. Formed by Alcatel, Ericsson, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, and Siemens, Scope aims to promote the interoperability of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) hardware and software for infrastructure equipment.

OpenSAF is intended to conserve engineering resources for NEPs (network equipment providers) and other companies requiring high availability, says the Foundation. It is also intended to act as a benchmark for developing highly available applications. OpenSAF middleware is now established under the LGPLv2.1 license (Library/Lesser GNU Public License).

In February, Wind River's Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition was rev'd to version 2.0, adding support for the Linux Foundation's Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) 4.0 requirements.

Stated Glenn Seiler, director of Networking Strategy and Solutions at Wind River, “We believe there is a clear trend in the industry to move open source software up the stack beyond the operating system. HA Middleware is a key building block that is now being addressed by the open source community, just like the operating system with Linux was 10 years ago.”

Stated John Fryer, president of the OpenSAF Foundation, “As one of the leaders in the Open Source community Wind River is well positioned to make significant contributions to both the Foundation and the OpenSAF project.”

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