Linux and Open Source in Telecommunications

In the past (circa 1985), communications and data service networks built on proprietary platforms to meet specific requirements for availability, reliability, performance and service response time. However, communications service providers needed to drive down costs while maintaining carrier-class platforms with high availability, scalability, security, reliability, predictable performance and easy maintenance and upgrade.

Figure 2. The Technology Trend from Closed Proprietary to Open Standards-Based Platforms

The current technological trend in this space, illustrated in Figure 2, is moving away from expensive proprietary and legacy systems consisting of proprietary technologies and components without a clear separation of the “building blocks” into standards-based systems that consist of interchangeable software and hardware COTS “building blocks” that communicate with each other using standardized interfaces and that are offered by multiple providers.

Traditionally, communications and data service networks were built on proprietary platforms that had to meet very specific requirements in areas such as availability, reliability, performance and service response time. Those proprietary systems were composed of highly purposed hardware, operating system and middleware and often included proprietary technologies and interfaces. Such proprietary approaches to system architecture fostered vendor lock-in, served to limit design flexibility and freedom and produced platforms that are very expensive to maintain and expand.

Today, those same service providers and carriers are challenged to drive down costs while still maintaining carrier-class characteristics for platforms to provide service and mission-critical applications in an all-IP environment. Providers are in a position today where they must move away from specialized proprietary architectures and toward COTS approaches and building practices (Figure 2) for several reasons:

The benefits of a standardized platform (Figure 3) based on COTS hardware and software are many:

Figure 3. A Typical Telecom Rack with Multiple Network Elements

To summarize, the telecommunication industry is transitioning to COTS architectures and practices, embracing Linux and open-source software and re-aligning at multiple levels. Before 1999/2000, the industry experienced incompatible platforms, protocols, high barriers to entry, circuit switches and so on. Today, the telecommunication industry is resurging with COTS, Linux and open-source software, with many new players and many opportunities for new businesses.