adminFWIOO is launching a project to enforce fairness in government. IT procurement of open source products by naming and defaming government agencies that break the rules. The 2004 California Performance Review called “the state should consider using open-source software more broadly.” This document (and the databases that support it) provides quantitative data. In many cases using open source/free software (abbreviated OSS/FS, FLOSS, or FOSS) is justified or even better based on various measures to exploit proprietary competition methods. Note that those who use the term “open source software” tend to emphasize the technical advantages of such software (such as improved reliability and security). In contrast, those who use “free software” emphasize freedom and no control by other means and/or ethical issues.
Other alternative terms for FLOSS, besides these terms, include “free software”, “software livre”, free/libre (where libre means free as in freedom). Datezone, Open-source software/free software (OS/FS) and free, open-source software (FOSS or F/OSS). “Released software”, and even ”public software” (because these software projects are often designed to serve the general public). Even if they are not physically present in the same place, open-source software developers (OSS) can create software on a large scale.
Given that about 90% of all software includes open source components, according to almost every analysis. It could account for up to 80% or more of proprietary applications. As WhiteSource Software found, companies need to be able to inventory and protect this software, but few can do it.
Tidelift offers a way to solve this problem by providing subscriptions that pay software maintainers to improve and protect their code.
In November, the German city of Munich announced that it had saved 10 million euros by switching to open-source office software. Polish commentators wondered why Polish government agencies hadn’t done the same. Nevertheless, there are signs that open source software may find more fertile ground in this part of Europe in the future.
The situation could be worse, says Michal Wozniak from the Polish Free and Open Software Foundation (FWIOO). Wozniak argues that this raises ideological questions about the software and its practical functions. While open source isn’t necessarily cheaper when all the associated costs are considered, it provides much-needed flexibility, leading to savings. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a way to fund open-source sustainability. Therefore, it’s essential to use multiple ways to achieve the goal of supporting and protecting open-source software.
The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) announced that T-Mobile (Poland) has achieved the launch of the open-source platform, ONF Open Mobile Evolved Core (OMEC). ONF is an operator-led consortium driving disruptive network transformation.
OMEC is an open-source, scalable mobile core platform built with Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architecture.
The Open Mobile Evolution Core (OMEC) project is working to rebuild its central office as the Data Center Initiative (CORD) to serve as a seed project for the newly launched COMAC project. The OMEC project, developed in partnership with Sprint, was implemented using an NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) architecture, optimized for Intel platforms, and tested for scalability. Doug Eng was echoed by Lyle Bertz, Director of Technology Innovation and Architecture at Sprint, who spoke about Sprint’s ongoing Open Mobile Evolution Core (OMEC) field trial in February 2019 with the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). The Sprint Clean open-source platform, CUPS Core for Packet Optimization (C3PO), was launched in 2017 as the project’s seed code.
It is the industry’s first open-source Evolved Packet Core (EPC) distribution. It now has a distributor in T-Mobile Poland, the first carrier to list a “production-grade” EPC (Enhanced Packet Roksa Core) based on OMEC. The goal of the C3PO project is to create an EPC (Virtual Evolution Packet Core) based on a software-defined network capable of handling a large load of subscribers without sacrificing speed.
OMEC implementation provides a lightweight base package that enables large-scale connectivity, billing, and payments for many fixed-mobile subscribers. For example, T-Mobile Poland uses OMEC’s Gateway Control, Subscriber Plans, and Billing components to provide a “fixed-mobile replacement” service, a wireless broadband product. OMEC Gateway Control includes a 3GPP compliant interface supporting connections to T-Mobile Poland base stations, mobility management services, and lawful interception platforms.
Thanks to OMEC, carriers like T-Mobile Poland can control their networks.
T-Mobile Poland is following what is likely to become commonplace in open networks: using OMEC, not in its core mobile broadband network, but to support a new service, fixed wireless (which the company calls mobile, fixed replacement). The distribution will serve as a valuable lesson for its majority shareholder, Deutsche Telekom, a member of the ONF. The implementation of ONF demonstrates how supply chain operators and vendors showup to use open source can implement revolutionary value propositions in record time.
At last year’s 5G and Open Source panel, AT&T Distinguished Technical Architect Doug Eng said operators have reached a point where open source is an opportunity at the heart of the network. Videos from T-Mobile Poland, Intel, ONF, and Sprint discuss the value of OMEC and the open-source core at ONF Connect 2019. ONF launched OMEC in 2019, providing the first production-grade open source mobile core solution. Disaggregated, 3GPP-compliant, independent controlled and user plane (CUPS) can run in containers, virtual machines, or bare metal.
Based on disaggregated RANs, fixed access, and CUPS-compliant core network components, COMAC’s target architecture is an optimized stack integrating programmable access layer, converged control plane, and assembled user plane that supports both LTE and 5G. The access architecture is based on the decoupled components of the RAN, core, and broadband network gateway (BNG) and is based on the work of other open groups such as ORAN for decoupled RAN and SDN from the ONF SDN-Enabled Broadband Access reference project, as well as its virtual termination hardware abstraction.
OMEC, in its first iteration, fits this model as it is primarily optimized for lightweight cores to support private networks or IoT use cases.
It remains to be seen which combination of vendors will provide the Open RAN portion of the 5G network and what developments Dish Networks engineers will make to that end. AWS’s private 5G network (Amazon provides the 5G RAN and 5G core network) will compete with Dish’s 5G network (Dish provides the RAN and AWS delivers the 5G SA core network) for industrial customers. Dish 5G customers will be able to customize their service based on metrics like speed and latency. This depends on network partitioning, which would require Dish Networks’ core 5G network SA that has been handed over to AWS. AWS customers will be able to choose where they want to build their mobile networks and how much network bandwidth they need, Selipsky said.
AWS will then provide and maintain the necessary networks for the small cell radios, servers, 5G (core) RAN software, radio access network, and Subscriber Identity Modules (SIMs) needed for the 5G private network and devices connected to it. The most important announcement for readers of the IEEE Tech blog was the new AWS Private 5G service, which will allow users to launch and manage their private mobile network in days with automatic configuration, no per-device charges, and shared spectrum operations for users.
