Meta contributes 3 open

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Meta (formerly known as Facebook) is contributing a trio of networking projects to the Linux Foundation to create the new LF Connectivity initiative.

The three projects being contributed by Meta are focused on helping improve network connectivity for both fixed and mobile deployments. Among the contributed projects is Terragraph, which is a technology designed to help improve last-mile connectivity for wireless networks. The second project, known as Open M-Plane (formerly a technology Meta had been developing under the name Evenstar), provides an open-source implementation of an O-RAN (Open RAN) Alliance–compliant management plane. The third project, Maveric, uses artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to help optimize cellular network deployments.

"We believe opening access to these technologies will accelerate new solutions from both large and small players," Shah Rahman, engineering director at Meta, told SDxCentral. "Linux Foundation's neutral governance will ensure fairness in the future direction of each project."

The Linux Foundation is home to many different networking projects already, and has an umbrella organization for them known as LF Networking.

LF Connectivity has a different focus than LF Networking. Arpit Joshipura, GM and SVP of networking at the Linux Foundation, explained that the focus of LF Connectivity is on advanced connectivity for dense locations or rural access. He noted that the connectivity project complements the LF Networking focus on being the umbrella for core open-source networking stacks, as well as the platform for interoperability.

As an open-source project umbrella, Joshipura said LF Connectivity will comprise a broad set of subprojects within the connectivity space to address different challenges in high-bandwidth fixed and mobile networks.

The initial three projects in LF Connectivity might be new to the Linux Foundation, but are not all new in terms of deployment.

Joshipura noted that Terragraph had been developed within Meta since 2015. It has a stable and growing ecosystem of silicon suppliers, advanced antenna module vendors, and several OEMs offering hardware products and related services powered by Terragraph.

"A multitude of connectivity service providers worldwide have adopted Terragraph-based solutions," Joshipura said.

With Open M-Plane, Joshipura said the goal is to support O-RAN Alliance industry-standard specifications for disaggregated hardware and software components for 5G NR radio units, particularly the Open Fronthaul Interface specified by O-RAN Workgroup 4. He added that Open M-Plane is designed around a hardware abstraction layer for portability onto different hardware platforms.

The Maveric project is all about helping improve RAN technology through simulation and testing. Joshipura said that Maveric aims to build representations of commercial networks that can be brought into a lab to enable testing of RAN and RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) features and third-party applications prior to autonomous deployment.

"Maveric contributions to LF Connectivity will include prototypes of machine learning models that can be trained with data from commercially deployed RAN networks and integrated into commercially deployed RAN simulator platforms," Joshipura said.

It's still early days for the LF Connectivity effort. Having technology available as open source is only one part of the process.

Joshipura said that LF Connectivity will now go through a formation phase for neutral governance with community meetings and participation. The governance structure will include an overall advisory board and individual technical steering committees for each working group project.

"In the next several months, work will be focused on forming a sustainable community around each subproject," he said. "Over time, we expect other projects to be added to LF Connectivity to help improve alternate connectivity solutions."