First ARM-based OPNFV reference platform demonstrated at San Jose’s NFV World May 6-8

CAMBRIDGE, England — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 5, 2015 — ARM and Enea will showcase the first ARM^®-based reference platform for Open Platform for Network Functions Virtualization (OPNFV) at the NFV World Congress from May 6-8, 2015. This demonstration of an early developer release on the ARM architecture brings unique value to the NFV vision, enabling processing efficiency and cross-platform flexibility and choice.

“This is a tremendous leap forward in delivering the NFV vision across a wide range of highly-integrated, workload-optimized ARM-based networking SoCs, available via the common OpenDataPlane^™ (ODP) interface layer,” said Charlene Marini, vice president of embedded marketing, ARM. “This application-ready platform is also the enabling layer for the Intelligent Flexible Cloud framework that will transform network infrastructure over the next decade.”

“As a founding member of the Linaro Networking Group and contributor to the ODP and OPNFV initiatives, Enea is committed to working together with leading hardware vendors and customers on SDN- and NFV-enabling technologies,” said Daniel Forsgren, senior vice president of product management at Enea. “We are proud to be delivering an initial configuration of NFV infrastructure to jump-start integration and application development within the ARM stakeholder community in OPNFV.”

The open source, carrier-grade NFV infrastructure platform supports a set of example virtual network function (VNF) applications. The collaboration of Enea and the ARM ecosystem of silicon partners will provide the initial building blocks of the platform, including OpenStack, OpenDaylight, Open vSwitch, KVM and the ODP built on a Linux^® foundation. The focus is on creating an application-ready platform based on the ARM architecture and ODP to move the industry towards a standardized open source framework. This will support the flexibility, greater automation and scalability that is required for future network infrastructure while also enabling underlying processing efficiency.

This initial release will be incorporated into the integration and testing processes of the Linux Foundation’s OPNFV project. This will enable the broader OPNFV community to participate in performance and reliability optimizations and to validate VNF applications on the ARM architecture.

An early configuration of the reference platform will be showcased at the ARM booth (#48) during NFV World Congress in San Jose, May 6-8, 2015. More information on the reference platform can be found on the blog ‘ ARM and Enea deliver diverse silicon support for OPNFV- Explained’ and ‘The Emergence of the OpenDataPlane™ Standard’ white paper.

Partner Quotes

AMD
“NFV and SDN will represent a significant revolution in the way networks are built and managed in the future, and open collaborative software initiatives such as OPNFV accelerate innovation to realize this vision,” said Scott Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager of AMD’s embedded solutions. “Demonstrated by our first NFV demo on a 64-bit ARM-based SoC, AMD is moving forward with ARM and the rest of the ecosystem to deliver compelling platforms for application development and deployment in this new paradigm.”

CableLabs
“As a founding member of OPNFV, CableLabs is committed to encouraging the emergence of a competitive ecosystem for NFV-based on open source and referencing international standards. The OPNFV project enables the industry to create NFV integration platforms according to a common baseline thereby accelerating collaboration and shared learning,” said Chris Donley, director of virtualization and network evolution at CableLabs and member of the OPNFV Board. “We welcome this initiative by ARM which will level the playing field for underpinning technologies and increase competitive choices for users.”

CAVIUM
“We are proud to be a key contributor to the ODP and OPNFV projects and part of this important milestone for the ARM ecosystem” said Imran Badr, vice president of software engineering at Cavium. “Cavium’s unique technology capabilities demonstrated in both our OCTEON III and ThunderX product lines, with a common software interface in ODP, bring tremendous value to the network infrastructure community. Working within the OPNFV project will help accelerate the evolution of NFV initiatives.”

Freescale
“Freescale^® is a major contributor to the development of ODP, and is very active in driving innovative solutions in OPNFV, including significant advancements in data plane acceleration,” said Raja Tabet, vice president of software and systems for Freescale Semiconductor’s digital networking group. “Freescale looks forward to demonstrating its unique value and expertise in optimized NFV solutions leveraging our ARM-based QorIQ^® multicore communications processors.”

OPNFV
"OPNFV is focused on fostering and strengthening a strong open ecosystem with a wide variety of hardware architectures and environments," said Heather Kirksey, director, OPNFV. "We are excited for initiatives like the ARM-based reference platform for the OPNFV integration project as it provides more choices for users."

About ARM
ARM (LSE: ARM) (NASDAQ: ARMH.US) is at the heart of the world’s most advanced digital products. Our technology enables the creation of new markets and transformation of industries and society. We design scalable, energy-efficient processors and related technologies to deliver the intelligence in applications ranging from sensors to servers, including smartphones, tablets and the internet of things.