Reliance Jio, India’s newest 4G service provider, is forming alliances at the global level to build a strong ecosystem around its network in the country. It has now joined hands with AT&T and the Linux Foundation through the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) Project.
The latest partnership will help the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom operator to drive innovation around software-defined networks (SDN), and network functions virtualization (NFV). It will also be collaborating with open source communities.
According to a statement, Reliance Jio has joined the ONAP project as a Platinum member.
To further its work in open source to support the Linux Foundation and next-gen service innovation and development, Jio is creating global centres of excellence, providing resources for driving new programs and initiatives. Jio's Platinum membership in ONAP provides a platform for accelerating these efforts.
"We are especially excited to collaborate with the ONAP community, using our respective assets and resources in the open source community. By working with AT&T, The Linux Foundation and other ONAP members, we look forward to contributing towards a fundamental shift in the framework of telecommunications to a cloud-centric digital platform that developers, partners and customers alike can shape to deliver value," said Mathew Oommen, President of Reliance Jio.
Jio's participation in ONAP reaffirms its dedication to aggressive network transformation utilising open source platforms to evolve beyond its all-IP and rich media services 4G LTE network. By contributing to open source initiatives, Jio supports rapid delivery of innovative and affordable services across wireless, wireline, content and at-home services.
"Jio is committed to being an active participant in driving the ONAP ecosystem by contributing to the project, driving efficiency and further enhancing its service creation, delivery and management capabilities," said Oommen.
The ONAP is one of the largest open source networking initiatives, with members including Amdocs, AT&T, Bell Canada, China Mobile, China Telecom, Cisco, Ericsson, GigaSpaces, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Orange, Tech Mahindra, VMware, ZTE and other leading network operators, OEMs and platform providers. Jio is the first India-based operator to join ONAP.
The project has brought together open source community members, and industry leaders from Asia, Europe and North America serve to further differentiate ONAP as the fastest-growing open networking initiative.
The ONAP is a collaborative open source project hosted by The Linux Foundation and formed in February through the combination of AT&T's ECOMP and The Linux Foundation's Open Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O). The two projects joined under ONAP to develop an open software platform for real-time, policy-driven software automation of virtual network functions. ONAP enables software, network and cloud provider companies as well as open source community developers to collaborate in an open ecosystem, encouraging the rapid creation of new services and innovation.
"We are excited Reliance Jio is joining ONAP as a Platinum member. The company's membership continues to expand ONAP's global reach as we push toward the acceptance of ONAP as the global, industry platform for SDN and NFV. ONAP aims to create and foster a dynamic community for networking automation, and we look forward to Reliance Jio's support,” said Chris Rice, ONAP Chair and Senior Vice President of AT&T Labs.
