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Nov 15
Love0

DENT, the Open Source Network Operating System for Distributed Edge, Now Powers AWS Just Walk Out Technology

By Announcements, Blog, News
  • Amazon deploys open source NOS to automate more efficient customer experience with Just Walk Out technology
  • Large-scale deployment by global enterprise commerce leader signals new level of maturity for open source Networking Operating System 
  • Growing ecosystem of members & collaborators across enterprises, silicon vendors, ODMs, OEMs, and System Integrators, demonstrates deployment readiness for disaggregated hardware  

The DENT Project, an open source ecosystem utilizing the Linux Kernel, Switchdev, and other Linux based projects, announced member company Amazon has deployed the DENT operating system (dentOS) as part of its Just Walk Out Technology in third party customer stores worldwide to streamline the customer experience and scale in-store operations. 

The need for retailers to innovate quickly in the pandemic era depends highly on the network to power the in-store components that enable more seamless and touchless experiences, like grab-and-go and electronic shelf labels. The number of devices, such as IP cameras and sensors, needed to enable these features require massive, edge switching and processing. Disaggregated hardware and open-source collaboration is needed to scale and accelerate standardization at the network edge.

DENT provides access to open source based switches at a lower cost and more flexibility compared to proprietary switches with locked ecosystems. DentOS enables the Just Walk Out Technology to connect and manage thousands of devices like cameras, sensors, entry and exit gates, and access points on the network edge.

“Adoption and deployment by the world’s largest e-commerce leader with its Just Walk Out Technology is a shining example of the power of open source,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “In just three years, the DENT community created a working platform for disaggregated networks to power multiple device locations at the edge, now used by top retail giants to streamline operations. This undertaking is only possible by the power of collaborative open source development.”   

“We are pleased to leverage the DENT open-source platforms to power networking infrastructure to enable customers to skip check-out lines with our Just Walk Out Technology,” said Jason Long, Head of Networking for Amazon Physical Retail Technology and Chairman of the DENT Board. “DENT enabled us to reduce our networking costs by giving us access to open-source switches that allowed Amazon to efficiently deploy new hardware and software whenever we need instead of waiting for a bug fix from a third-party vendor”.

“With its cost-effective cloud managed networking products, Quantum Networks has established itself as a reliable partner, especially in emerging markets,” said Mukesh Majithia, Director (Technical), Quantum Networks. “Our collaboration with the DENT community and Sartura is intended to build a roadmap for market-required features. Being able to provide a better service to our customers through the use of Open Source technologies is what sets us apart from traditional vendors at a lower price.”

DENT at ONE Summit

The announcement was shared during the ONE Summit opening keynote address in Seattle, Wash. ONE Summit is the one  industry event that brings together decision makers and implementers for two days of in-depth presentations and interactive conversations around 5G, Access, Edge, Telco, Cloud, Enterprise Networking, and more open source technology developments. 

The DENT community also hosted a collocated workshop to provide details on the NOS’ architecture, use in Distributed Edge scenarios, compatible hardware and how DENT impacts and contributes to the upstream Linux kernel. 

More information about DENT is available at https://dent.dev/. 

Ecosystem Support:

Babtel

“It is imperative that we provide reliable, private, and secure communications to US soldiers and military contractors overseas. Achieving our mission requires agility and resilience.” said Peter Catranis, CTO, Babtel. “With our joint efforts with Sartura, we have been able to leverage leading Open Source software extensively. Today these technologies are being adopted by a variety of industries, which of course benefits everyone.”

Keysight

“Keysight has been involved with DENT since its inception because we are eager to drive the success and adoption of open-source communities,” said Dean Lee, Senior Director, Cloud Solution Unit, Keysight. “We are hosting the community system integration lab which provides multi-vendor interoperability testing to make DENT robust and drive customer POCs successfully. We are delighted to see the fruits of these labors come to fruition through Amazon’s pioneering deployment of DENT components in its retail stores.”

TELUS

“Our collaboration with Sartura around DENT, switchdev, and mainline Linux simplifies our support model for data centers and central offices,” said Paul Arola, Senior Design Specialist, TELUS. “With no reliance on proprietary SDK’s, we can rapidly deploy new software releases, and security patches with an agility that is not possible with traditional switch NOS”.

Sartura

“Sartura is one of the key organizations which has consistently delivered on the promise of a modern disaggregated network infrastructure. By providing professional services, our team empowers our partners and customers to utilize state-of-the-art open source networking technologies,” said Luka Perkov, CEO, Sartura. “We have been devoted to making Linux-based networking technologies more accessible to the broad market, and the market is responding favorably. Those that place a high importance on security, flexibility, and openness have found our efforts particularly appealing. As we move forward, our activities will be directed towards further developing the ecosystem.”

Quantum Networks

“With its cost-effective cloud managed networking products, Quantum Networks has established itself as a reliable partner, especially in emerging markets,” said Mukesh Majithia, Director (Technical), Quantum Networks. “Our collaboration with the DENT community and Sartura is intended to build a roadmap for market-required features. Being able to provide a better service to our customers through the use of Open Source technologies is what sets us apart from traditional vendors at a lower price.”

Mar 08
Love0

DENT 2.0, Secure and Scalable Open Source Network Operating System Aimed at Small and Mid-Size Enterprises, Available Now

By Announcements, Blog

Newest version of DENT, a Linux Foundation project, adds secure scaling, PoE control, and traffic policing, being deployed in retail environments in North America and Asia markets

Available for immediate download and testing; new Getting Started documentation available, supported hardware platforms list expanded

SAN FRANCISCO, March 8, 2022 – The DENT Project, an open source network operating system utilizing the Linux Kernel, Switchdev, and other Linux based projects, today announced DENT 2.0 is available for immediate download. The “Beeblebrox” release adds key features utilized by distributed enterprises in retail and remote facilities, providing a secure and scalable Linux-based Network Operating System (NOS) for disaggregated switches adaptable to edge deployment. DENT provides a smaller, more lightweight NOS for use at the small, remote edges of enterprise networks.

DENT 2.0 adds secure scaling with Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and Network Address Translation (NAT) to support a broader community of enterprise customers. It also adds Power over Ethernet (PoE) control to allow remote switching, monitoring, and shutting down. Connectivity of IoT, Point of Sale (POS), and other devices is highly valuable to retail storefronts, early adopters of DENT. DENT 2.0 also adds traffic policing, helping mitigate attack situations that overload the CPU. 

“DENT has made great strides this past year and with its edge and native Linux approach, with a rich feature set for distributed enterprises like retail or remote facilities. DENT continues to expand into new use cases and welcomes community input with an open technical community, under the Linux Foundation,” said Arpit Joshipura, GM of Networking & Edge at The Linux Foundation.

DENT 2.0 Main Features to enable secure and scalable development

  • Secure scaling with IPv6 and NAT to appeal to a broader community of SME customers
  • PoE control to allow remote switching, monitoring, and shutting down
  • Rate limiting to protect against broadcast storms, creating a stronger OS under erroneous BUM (Broadcast, Unicast, Multicast) traffic

DENT goes beyond the data center to enable enterprises to transition to disaggregated network switches and use cases available with the distributed enterprise and edge networking. The open source NOS provides key technology leverage in retail, a sector that is leading innovation in digital transformation. The Amazon public showcase of DENT hardware at re:Invent in November 2021 reached 20,000+ attendees.

“This new release of DENT 2.0 adds critical updates focused on smaller enterprise needs. This was the goal of DENT all along, and I would like to thank our members and the wider community for this broad, concerted effort to move DENT significantly forward,” said Steven Noble, DENT Technical Steering Committee Chair. “It’s not easy building a flexible, accessible network OS, and this is why I’m proud of all the effort and coordination by so many talented individuals. If you are looking for an open source disaggregated network OS, now is great timing for looking at DENT.”

Retail stores, warehousing, remote locations, enterprise, and Small and Mid-Size Enterprises are all ideal environments for DENT deployment. Wiring closets in many facilities are small. Staff expertise may be limited, and branch-office switches from leading suppliers can require costly contracts. DENT is easily deployed on white-box hardware in small spaces. It can be set up to support dozens of wireless access points and IoT sensors, creating a manageable network to track inventory, monitor shelf real estate, scan customer activity, and perform automated checkouts.

DENT premier members include Amazon, Delta Electronics Inc, Edgecore Networks, and Marvell. DENT would also like to acknowledge important contributions from NVIDIA, Keysight Technologies, and Sartura.

To download and start testing DENT 2.0 today: https://github.com/dentproject/dentOS

To join DENT technical working groups: https://lists.dent.dev/g/tsc/calendar 

Supporting Quotes

“Delta has built complete white box networking platforms based on DENT technology, helping drive a disaggregation model in edge that offers cost and flexibility benefits to customers looking for OEM solutions,” said Charlie Wu, Vice President, Solution Center at Delta Networks. “The deployment of our 1G and 10G Ethernet switch boxes with Marvell’s Prestera devices and the DENT OS in real world applications demonstrates the power of open source to accelerate technology innovation in networking.” 

“Edgecore Networks, as the premier member of DENT, is pleased to see the groundbreaking second release of DENT 2.0, enabling DENT community members to use the DENT’s simplified abstracts, APIs, drivers, to lessen development and deployment overhead,” said Taskin Ucpinar, Senior Director of SW Development at Edgecore Networks. “This innovative product development approach enables the community to build robust solutions with minimal effort and immediately help System Integrators deploy a networking solution to remote campuses and retail stores.”

“As the chairing company for DENT Test Working Group, Keysight has partnered with the open-source community to host the system integration test bed in Keysight labs,” said Dean Lee, Senior Director Cloud Solution Team at Keysight Technologies. “Being a neutral test vendor, we have worked with the community to harden the DENT NOS in multi-vendor interoperability, performance and resiliency. We are delighted to contribute to the success and wide adoption of DENT.

“Marvell is accelerating the build-out of Ethernet switching infrastructure in emerging edge and borderless enterprise applications, and DENT is a key component to our offerings,” said Guy Azrad, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Switch Business Unit at Marvell. “With DENT incorporated on our Prestera® switch platforms, we are currently enabling retailers to transform physical stores to smart retail connected environments that benefit consumers through easy and efficient in-store experiences.”

Additional DENT Resources

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

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The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see our trademark usage page: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

Dec 17
Love2

DENT Introduces Industry’s First End-to-End Networking Stack Designed for the Modern Distributed Enterprise Edge and Powered by Linux

By Announcements

· Dent issues “Arthur”, its First Code Release that Delivers an Open, Simplified Networking Operating System for next-generation retail and campus networks

· Linux Foundation announces inaugural Dent general members committed to delivering enterprise-grade, disaggregated networks through an open ecosystem

San Francisco, December 17, 2020 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced Arthur — the first code release of Dent, a project to enable the creation of a Network Operating System (NOS) for Disaggregated Network Switches in campus and remote enterprise locations. Since its December 2019 launch, several companies have joined DENT as general members, including Innovium, Arcadyan, Aviz Networks, and Alpha Networks who are joined by Dent premier members Amazon, Delta Electronics Inc, Marvell, NVIDIA, Edgecore Networks, and Wistron NeWeb (WNC).

The Arthur release – aptly named after Arthur Dent, the protagonist character of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy– uses the recently released Linux 5.6 Kernel and leverages SwitchDev to simplify integrations, eliminate complex abstractions and SDK change management, and support existing Linux tool chains. In addition to providing the industry’s widest range of hardware options, the Arthur release includes over 25 key features to enable enterprise infrastructure teams to safely transition to disaggregated networks.

“With the Arthur release, we’re witnessing the makings of an open network operating system, control plane and management plane that will transform how enterprises address their distributed edge challenges,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, at The Linux Foundation. “The DENT community has grown quickly and executed on this first major code release at a time when the entire industry is rethinking the future of retail and campus environments.”

The networking industry is moving away from customized, proprietary solutions for telecom, cloud and enterprise data center markets in favor of open standards. However, these open advancements have failed to meet the specific needs of distributed enterprise edge networking, such as a simplified networking OS stack that is low cost and Linux-based. DENT enables an open community to build this solution without complicated abstractions. It uses the Linux Kernel, Switchdev, and other Linux-based projects to allow developers to treat networking ASICs and silicon like any other hardware. This simple disaggregated Linux/SwitchDev-based switch ultimately simplifies integration across the ecosystem and encourages application developers to adopt this new standard.

For more information, please visit dent.dev


Premier Member Quotes

“Open networking is the future, and Delta is proud to be a part of the momentum with the Dent project,” said Honda Wu, vice president of Solutions and Open Source at Delta. “Our goal is to support the initial users of Dent with our deep knowledge and expertise in networking.”

“As a leading provider of open networking solutions for data centers and enterprises, Edgecore is pleased to see the release of dentOS for next-generation retail and campus networks through the open community ecosystem. Disaggregated hardware and open source enables more enterprise and campus network customers to enjoy the benefits of open networking.” Michael Ward, vice president, Business Development, Software, Edgecore Networks.

“As a leading silicon provider in access networking, we remain committed to supporting industry standard application interfaces on our switch portfolio, allowing our customers to leverage the full network operating software ecosystem. Dent is a key component to our offerings,” said Gavin Cato, vice president of product management and marketing at Marvell. “The Arthur release is running on multiple 1G and 10G platform deployments incorporating Marvell’s feature-rich Prestera® Ethernet switches. This milestone demonstrates our commitment to bringing innovative solutions for automated and personalized experiences within the borderless enterprise across the smart edge and retail networking.”

“Dent’s Arthur release is a major step towards accelerating the open source networking revolution that NVIDIA has spearheaded for years,” said Amit Katz, vice president of Ethernet Switches at NVIDIA Networking. “Dent OS, an open source network operating system, leverages the wide Linux ecosystem to provide freedom of choice for modern data centers and edge deployments. By providing the industry leading ASIC and software innovations such as FRRouting, SwitchDev, and several other kernel networking contributions, we look forward to pushing the advancement of Dent.”

“The Arthur release incorporates intelligent wireless and wireline capabilities critical to any enterprise’s decision to embrace open software architecture,” said Larry Lee, executive vice president and general manager of the Networking Business Group at WNC. “We and other industry leaders supporting Dent worked closely together to tackle distributed switching for the initial retail use case.”

General Member Quotes

“With more than 17 years of Tier-1 Operators networking experience, Arcadyan is glad to join Dent and looking forward to making contributions to the software ecosystem,” said Jenny Yang, director at Arcadyan.

“Aviz Networks recently joined the Dent project and the Open Verification Lab (OVL) initiative in partnership with Keysight providing test expertise and a vendor neutral test facility for the Dent community. Aviz and Keysight will continue to lead the Dent test working group to ensure the highest quality for future Dent releases,” said the Aviz Networks team.

“As a leading provider of high performance and innovative switch silicon solutions that have been deployed at scale by multiple top customers, Innovium is a big champion for open, standards-based and disaggregated networking solutions. We are excited to be part of Linux Foundation’s open-source Dent project, which aims to deliver those benefits combined with a compelling TCO,” said Amit Sanyal, vice president of Marketing at Innovium.


About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more.  The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

Media Contact

pr@dent.dev

Dec 13
Love2

DENT Launches To Simplify Enterprise Edge Networking Software

By Announcements

Linux Foundation open ecosystem enables low cost, standardized network solutions for campus and remote offices

San Francisco, Calif., Dec 13, 2019 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the launch of DENT, a project to enable the creation of Network OS for Disaggregated Network Switches in campus and remote enterprise locations. Under the Linux Foundation, DENT hopes to unify and grow the community of Silicon Vendors, Original Design Manufacturers (ODM), System Integrators (SI), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and end users to create an ecosystem of contributors around a full-featured network operating system. The initial use case will focus on the retail industry with premier members including Amazon, Cumulus Networks, Delta Electronics Inc, Marvell, Mellanox, Wistron NeWeb (WNC).

Networking solutions today are customized for each market and each use case, whether telecom, cloud or enterprise data center markets. They use proprietary silicon (ASIC) for packet processing and closed operating systems to enable workloads and applications on a network switch. Disaggregation is the new way for Open Networking and has been well accepted in data centers and telecom infrastructures.  However, in enterprise networking– especially with distributed locations– nothing currently exists for Enterprise Edge properties that fall outside the traditional public cloud as they have very specific requirements to take advantage of disaggregation and the networking stack.

Remote campus locations and retail stores require a simple networking OS stack that is low cost and Linux-based. DENT is an Open Source project that will enable the community to build this solution without complicated abstractions. It uses the Linux Kernel, Switchdev and other Linux based projects to allow developers to treat networking ASICs and silicon like any other hardware. It simplifies abstractions, APIs, drivers and overheads that currently exist in these switches and on other open software.

With new technologies like 5G, Edge, IOT, AI, the next generation of remote buildings, retail stores and enterprises will have a lot of innovative workloads and services close to the applications and users. Having a simple disaggregated Linux/SwitchDev-based switch to power the remote offices will enable an ecosystem of apps that simplifies and standardizes integration across the ecosystem.

“The Linux Foundation will establish a neutral home from the start for DENT – vital for community infrastructure, meetings, events and collaborative discussions,” said Arpit Joshipura, GM of Networking at The Linux Foundation. ”Our goal is to create an open source, open participation technical community to benefit the ecosystem of solution providers and users focused on network operating system, control plane and management plane use cases across a variety of industry solutions.”

For more information, please visit www.dent.dev

Additional Quotes

“Delta is excited to participate in DENT and applauds the Linux Foundation for tackling the challenges in enterprise and campus networking,” said Honda Wu, Vice President of solutions and open source at Delta. “We stand ready to support with our deep knowledge and expertise in networking.”

“We are excited to have the Linux Foundation join with us to grow the community and accelerate this open source networking revolution,” said Amit Katz, vice president of Ethernet switches at Mellanox Technologies. “DENT OS is a native Linux Network Operating System which leverages switchdev, a Linux driver for Ethernet switch ASICs that Mellanox pioneered.   Switchdev exposes the unique hardware innovations in the Mellanox Spectrum family of Ethernet Switches. DENT promotes network disaggregation, which benefits customers by eliminating vendor lock-in and allows hardware vendors to compete on a level playing field, where the very best switch ASICs and systems can win by delivering the highest ROI possible.”

“As a provider of intelligent wireless and wireline solutions, including those for distributed enterprise networking, Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC) fully embraces open software architecture,” said Larry Lee, EVP and GM of the Networking BG at WNC. “We are delighted to partner with the Linux Foundation and other industry leaders for this DENT project. WNC will first tackle distributed switching for the initial retail use case. We see great potential for this full-featured networking OS and look forward to working together in this partnership to improve network efficiency and provide conveniences for campuses and other remote distributed networking markets.”

“Open source is in Cumulus’ DNA and we’re excited to be the first software platform to contribute to DENT. We have a deep history with the Linux Foundation, from driving the FRRouting project, the most contributed open source routing project in the world, to our contributions to ONIE, EVPN, among others,” said Partho Mishra, President and Chief Product Officer at Cumulus Networks. “Cumulus is the natural choice to support DENT given our deep roots with networking contributions to the Linux kernel, our latest support for SwitchDev, and our expansive reach in the data center with more than 2,000 customers.  We are looking forward to partnering on the DENT project to extend open source in kernel networking capabilities from the data center to the campus edge.”

“As a leading silicon provider in access networking and a firm believer in customer choice through disaggregated hardware and software, Marvell is excited to bring our technology leadership to Linux Foundation’s DENT project as a founding member,” said Gavin Cato, vice president of product management and marketing at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.  “Marvell’s innovative switch portfolio lays the foundation for the transformation of access networks and the edge into an intelligent future while creating significant total cost of ownership advantages for customers. We are well positioned to be a game changer in retail networking and the smart edge, bringing a holistic approach to the ecosystem.”

 

About The Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation is supported by more than 1,000 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects are critical to the world’s infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, and more.  The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

 

The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

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