When Service Routing met Linux — the genesis of a game changing Network Operating System #SRLinux
In 1905 a young Albert Einstein presented the revolutionary concept of quantized light to his fellow scientists. It was a radical departure from the popular theories of continuous energy at the time, by Maxwell and others.
“In this paper I wish to communicate my train of thought and present the facts that led me to this course, in the hope that the point of view to be elaborated may prove of use to some researchers in their investigations.”
In 1991 a young Linus Torvalds announced his prototype software on a mailing list with fellow developers, in the context of a discussion on Minix features to be created next.
“Hello everybody out there using minix, I’m doing a (free) operating
system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386
(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to
get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in
minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the
file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).”
Every revolutionary change starts small and humble, in the minds of a select few extraordinary people that dare to think differently. Introducing Nokia Service Router Linux (SRLinux)
“Service Router?” I’m SO glad you asked :)
Back in 2003 a small US based networking startup called TiMetra was acquired by Alcatel, just as they were about to launch their new IP/MPLS “Services Router” for edge networking. At the time, it was more common to think of the network on a box-by-box basis, with each router consisting of multiple line cards that in turn had multiple ports. A “service” was a port to be sold to a customer, and they would pay on the basis of bits and bytes counted at each interface.
Basil Alwan and his team recognized the need for a broader, more abstract and comprehensive perspective: A network consisting of “services” that extend across many elements, at various layers (L2 VPLS draft Martini that became historic RFC4906, L3 VPRN (RFC2547), …). At the edge of the network, these services (and the associated customer traffic) would combine, requiring extreme flexibility in terms of configuration and high quality in terms of software.
Fast forward to 2021, where the service edge of the network has evolved to reside in the data center, at the Top-of-Rack (using merchant silicon) or even running as software on generic compute nodes (e.g. in sidecar containers managed by Kubernetes). The volume of traffic and rate of change have grown exponentially, creating the need for a flexible, comprehensive and truly open Network Operating System (NOS) that has weathered the storms.
Humble beginnings of a new journey
As a new member of the Nokia Webscale team, I plan to document and share the highlights and lessons learnt as we explore the adjacent possible in the world of networking together.
