| Telecommunications journal overviews open source |
Oct. 14, 2004
Billing World has published a 3,700-word article about how open source software and Linux are changing the telecommunications industry. Entitled Open Source: Balancing Innovation and Risk, the lengthy article provides an interesting look at embedded Linux and other open source technologies from a telecom industry perspective.
Linux among carriers
Author Susana Schwartz begins by explaining how the collaborative open source development process works. She notes that Sprint and AT&T publicly espouse Linux, while other carriers, protective of competitive advantages or fearful of attracting SCO's attention, are more reticent. Schwartz says, though, that "most of the Tier 1 [carriers] have either inquired about support from OSS/BSS vendors, or joined the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL)," including NTT DoCoMo, Verizon, Sprint, MCI, and AT&T.
Networking equipment providers
Schwartz notes that open source software is innovating development tools, citing Eclipse and JUnit; software, including perl, JFlex, and Jackyl; and operating systems, such as Linux. However, Carrier Grade Linux in particular has gained traction, she says. Embedded Linux vendors MontaVista, TimeSys, Novell/SuSE, and Red Hat, along with Nokia, Alcatel, and NEC, are working on "softswitches and application servers" for network services, Schwartz writes, concluding that, "Embedded Linux is expected to proliferate as vendors build carrier-class switches, media gateways, and CORE and EDGE equipment on top of carrier-grade Linux implementations."
Schwartz then briefly discusses the Open Communication Architecture Forum (OCAF), an ITU focus group. OCAF will "agree on specifications for a set of components for new carrier grade open platforms that will accelerate deployment of NGN [next-generation network] infrastructure and services," and "encourage development and availability of low cost standardized Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) components."
Telecom back-offices -- Linux evolving quickly
Linux has traditionally not been adequately performant for provisioning, fulfillment, and billing applications, Schwartz says, in part because it has mainly been developed to run on PCs, which are inherently less reliable than the integrated telecommunications systems sold by HP, Sun, et. al. However, the open source operating system is improving quickly, according to several back-office software vendors quoted in the article. Brooktrout CTO Eric Burger, for example, says, "We see some pretty quick evolutions taking place. We were adamant not too long ago about the performance threading of Solaris or Intel over Linux; however, the new Linux threading model came out, and it proved faster than Solaris, so we went with Linux for that development."
Still, Linux is currently most viable as an OS for Tier 2 and 3 carriers, Schwartz writes, while multimillion-dolar Unix systems from HP and Sun fight for large implementations requiring more than 100 CPUs. At the same time, Linux powers some of the largest computer installations in the world, including Google, so Tier 1 Linux back office implementations are likely only "a matter of time," according to Rick Woods, VP of Intec, as quoted by Schwartz.
Back-office applications are generally easy to port to Linux, Schwartz adds, and Linux support services are widely available from the likes of IBM, Oracle, HP, and Sun.
Freedom
Schwartz then looks at the "freedoms" of open source software and Linux, such as freedom from vendor lock-in, and freedom from vendor-enforced hardware and software upgrade cycles.
Another freedom Schwartz discusses is freedom from the performance limitations of proprietary software. She cites a case in which MySQL provided a solution where Sybase and Oracle could not, and one in which British Telecom has chosen Linux over Solaris for a "triple play" (voice, video, data) service it is testing.
At the same time, Linux and open source software involve risk. There's little guarantee that open source packages will be maintained or supported in the future, Schwartz notes. Open source developers may value programming aesthetics or their own interests over business realities. And, open source is hardly cheap, according to Schwartz, who says that packages sometimes lack fit and finish, or require some debugging.
Another risk is that embracing open source will shift engineering efforts to re-engineering and debugging, a cultural change that requires different skillsets and can lead to team attritrition.
Schwartz concludes with a brief explanation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and its requirements and obligations. Schwartz then discusses dynamic linking as a way to maintain differentiation, concluding, "While the open source requirements can be onerous for equipment manufacturers, they really aren't for in-house developers."
The complete Billing World article is available here.
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