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In order to support these requirements, in the last few years, a few emerging technologies and concepts have appeared and disrupted how network equipment is designed, and how networks are built and operated: hardware commoditization and disaggregation of software from hardware and of software itself, extensive use of open source (Linux), Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and DevOps.
OpenSwitch (OPX) – an opens open source network operating system (NOS) and ecosystem - was an early adopter of these concepts and technologies. Designed using a standard Debian Linux distribution with an unmodified Linux kernel, OpenSwitch provides a programmable high-level abstraction of network components, such as switching ASICs (Network Processors) and optical transceivers. Architected as a scalable, cloud-ready, agile solution, the open source OpenSwitch software implements a flexible infrastructure to enable both network operators and vendors to rapidly on-board open source Networking OS applications. OpenSwitch provides a YANG based programmatic interface, that can be accessed using Python, thus providing an environment well-suited for DevOps.
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