ONOS (Open Network Operating System)

ONOS (Open Network Operating System)
Name	ONOS
Title	Open Network Operating System
Developer	Open Networking Laboratory
Released	2014
Programming language	Java
Operating system	Linux
License	Apache License 2.0

ONOS (Open Network Operating System) is a distributed, carrier-grade network operating system designed for service providers and enterprises to build scalable, high-availability software-defined networking solutions. It provides control-plane abstractions, southbound and northbound interfaces, and application frameworks that enable programmable network behavior across optical, packet, and virtualized domains. ONOS aims to support real-world deployments requiring fault tolerance, geo-redundancy, and high throughput.

Overview

ONOS is an open-source project incubated by the Open Networking Foundation and developed primarily by the Open Networking Laboratory with contributions from vendors and operators such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Verizon, NTT, and Telefonica. It implements a distributed core founded on consensus and cluster coordination principles similar to those used by systems like Apache ZooKeeper and Raft and integrates with protocol ecosystems including OpenFlow, NETCONF, gNMI, and BGP. ONOS exposes northbound REST and gRPC APIs to orchestration platforms such as OpenStack, Kubernetes, Apache Mesos, and OpenDaylight-based controllers, enabling integration with service orchestration, virtual network functions, and intent-based management systems like ONAP.

Architecture

The ONOS architecture separates concerns into distinct planes: a distributed control plane, southbound protocol adapters, and northbound application interfaces. The control-plane cluster uses consistent distributed data stores and state synchronization mechanisms comparable to etcd and Consul; it supports eventual and strong consistency models. ONOS employs modular Java-based components running on Linux distributions, leveraging the OSGi runtime model influenced by projects such as Eclipse Equinox and Apache Felix. For physical and virtual network element interaction, ONOS includes device drivers and protocol agents interoperable with switching vendors like Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems, Arista Networks, and Huawei.

Features and Components

Key ONOS features include fault-tolerant clustering, intent framework, topology and device managers, packet processing pipelines, and flow-rule management. The Intent Framework provides a high-level abstraction for services and is comparable in intent-driven goals to Cisco ACI and VMware NSX-T Data Center. Components such as the Topology Manager, Link Discovery, and Flow Programmers interact with southbound adapters for Open vSwitch, Broadcom Trident ASICs, and optical gear from Ciena and Infinera. ONOS integrates with analytics and telemetry systems like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK Stack, and supports streaming telemetry paradigms developed by IETF working groups. Security and device lifecycle features align with standards from IETF and IEEE.

Deployment and Use Cases

ONOS is deployed in production trials and commercial environments for use cases including software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN), network slicing for 5G infrastructure, IP/optical transport orchestration, and campus fabric automation. Service providers such as NTT and SK Telecom have explored ONOS for carrier-grade control of packet-optical convergence and MPLS transport. Enterprises use ONOS for data center fabric orchestration integrating with Open vSwitch and Kubernetes CNI plugins, and research institutions leverage ONOS for testbeds like GENI and GÉANT. Edge computing scenarios tie ONOS to platforms such as EdgeX Foundry and MEC frameworks from ETSI.

Development and Community

The ONOS project is governed by the Linux Foundation-affiliated community and follows collaborative development practices similar to Apache Software Foundation projects. Contributors include operators, hardware vendors, system integrators, and academic labs from institutions like Stanford University and Berkeley research groups. The community organizes code sprints, technical meetings, and participates in events such as Open Networking Summit, Mobile World Congress, and Interop to demonstrate integrations with projects like ONAP, OpenContrail, Stratum, and P4. Documentation, CI pipelines, and SDKs encourage applications by developers familiar with Java, gRPC, and REST ecosystems.

History and Releases

ONOS began as a research-to-production effort in the early 2010s and formally announced public releases around 2014 through collaboration between the Open Networking Foundation and university research teams. Its release cadence evolved to provide long-term stable distributions and feature releases; milestone versions introduced features such as distributed core improvements, enhanced southbound protocol support, intent safety, and optical control. Over time ONOS incorporated integrations with emerging standards and commercial platforms from Ericsson, Nokia, Ciena, and cloud operators like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform in experimental deployments. The project continues iterative releases driven by operator requirements and advances in SDN, NFV, and cloud-native networking paradigms.

Category:Software-defined networking Category:Network operating systems