A new OpenFastPath (OFP) Foundation has been established with a mission of creating an open-source community around a standardized, accelerated TCP/IP stack that provides top performance for SDN-ready network functions. For operator networks, the new fast-path stack aims to deliver reduced IP latency, higher capacity and thus faster packet forwarding, and lower implementation costs.
The OFP TCP/IP stack implementation is based on the open-source Free Berkeley Software Distribution (FreeBSD) operating system, and includes User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). New functions will be added in the future. Optimized for OpenDataPlane (ODP) programming interfaces, with a focus on leveraging hardware acceleration through ODP. Will be available for all major processor architectures, including ARM, x86, MIPS and PowerPC. –
Founding members of the OFP are Nokia Networks, ARM and Enea. The initiative is also supported by several industry players including AMD, Cavium, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard and Linaro.
