ETSI and the Linux Foundation agree to bring open source and standards closer

The EU’s Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking is funding 35 6G flagships projects worth €250 million.

Open source technology group the Linux Foundation and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate more closely.

They say they plan to “bring open source and standards closer and foster synergies between them”.

Building on the existing working relationship between the two organisations, the collaboration agreement aims to enable faster information-sharing and deployment of open networking technologies.

The formal link between communities of experts will encourage and enable collaborative activities, joint communication, promotion and events, as well as potential common initiatives related to interoperability and conformance testing.

Areas of mutual interest between ETSI and the Linux Foundation span across a range of technologies, including those focused on network functions virtualisation (NFV), management and orchestration (MANO), artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing.

Harmonisation

Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge, and IoT, the Linux Foundation, said, “It’s encouraging to see how far the industry has come in such a short time.

“This agreement with ETSI signals it’s possible to reach a harmonisation of collaborative activities across open source and standards for the networking industry. Working together results in less fragmentation, faster deployments, and more streamlined innovation.”

Luis Jorge Romero, Director General, ETSI, added, “We are eager to deepen our work with the open source communities at the Linux Foundation.

“Open Source has been part of our working methods and our technical groups, Open Source MANO being an example, for several years now. Further collaboration provides the standards community with a quick feedback loop on how our specifications are being implemented.”