The NFVO Product and its Profiles

Insight Research, in its recent report “The VNFO…Ripe for change” has broken down the market by product profile. We consider two profile categories – Direct Open Source and Proprietary.

Let us look closely at the categories.

Insight Research has a very categorical definition for direct open source NFVOs - those that traverse the development journey directly from the open source community to the end-user. Thus open source offering that are internalized by OEMs and offered as proprietary NFVOs are not covered under direct open source.

Open source initiatives have played a pivotal role in the journey of the orchestrator. ONAP, OSM, Nephio and Kubernetes are some of the prominent contributions of the open source community to the VNFO development; and have been therefore profiled at length in the report.

What then is ‘direct’ open source?

Open source initiatives have been utilized by various stakeholders in different ways. While in some cases have been used “as-is”; they have also been internalized into proprietary products in totality or in parts.

‘Direct’ open source refers to situations where the open source output has been used “as-is”.

Proprietary initiatives on the other hand, could have been developed ground up by their respective principals or could have absorbed some of the open-source output along the way. In both cases, the product has been sold as proprietary.

What are your thoughts on this characterization?

Kaustubha Parkhi Principal Analyst, Insight Research

RELATED BLOGS

The ‘Marvellous’ Opening of the AI Accelerator in the 5G RAN

Posted: March 25, 2024

      In end-February 2024, Marvell captured large bits of popular imagination when it open sourced OCTEON 10 ML/AI Accelerator Software to what it termed as optimization of 5G RAN Networks. Lying as it does at the intersection of AI and RAN, it is worth taking a deep dive into this development as AI … Continue reading The ‘Marvellous’ Opening of the AI Accelerator in the 5G RAN

SDN, NFV and Indian Telcos

Posted: October 21, 2018

      I returned with useful insights from the SDN-NFV India earlier this month. There were two discernible trends – optimistic solution vendors and cautious telcos. Indian telcos are worried about the following: Indian telcos, including the largest ones, are genuinely concerned about the solidity and stability of SDN and NFV products. Telcos think … Continue reading SDN, NFV and Indian Telcos

AI burden in RAN – 5G Wins!

Posted: February 17, 2024

      Does 5G wear the AI burden more lightly in the RAN than earlier ‘older’ generations? Most certainly! We aver in our upcoming report, “AI ML and DL in the Mobile Core”. To be sure, there was no shortage of motivation for the usage of AI in 4G, or for that matter ANY … Continue reading AI burden in RAN – 5G Wins!