Cumulus Networks used the Optical Networking and Communication Conference & Exhibition (OFC) this week to announce that Cumulus Linux is now available for early access on Voyager through partner ADVA, and will be generally available in June of this year.
The availability of Cumulus Linux on Voyager follows the ADVA Optical Networking and fellow Telecom Infra Project (TIP) member InterNexa S.A. announcement in November 2017 that a successful trial of TIP's Voyager open whitebox packet DWDM transponder platform was complete (see "InterNexa, ADVA Optical Networking trial Telecom Infra Project Voyager whitebox packet DWDM transponder"). In 2016, the Facebook-inspired TIP announced the Voyager platform at the TIP Summit at Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, CA (see "Telecom Infra Project intros Voyager white box open packet DWDM transponder").
Integrating DWDM technology with switching and routing functionality, Voyager is the industry's first open packet-optical transport system, Cumulus Networks attests. Cumulus Linux meets operator demand for scalable, affordable backhaul infrastructure to support growing internet usage worldwide and bandwidth-intensive applications, including scientific research, machine learning, video, and virtual reality.
Cumulus says it offers interfaces for programmability and automation, along with delivering a L2/L3 stack, and an open Linux model that provides operators with deep, fabric-wide visibility. With the combination of IP and optical, Cumulus Linux's routing protocol stack, VXLAN, and EVPN enable customers to build low-cost, high-performance long haul systems. The collaboration creates a market for Cumulus beyond the data center to data center interconnect (DCI) because Voyager addresses challenges in metro and long-haul fiber-optic transport networks.
According to Cumulus Networks, over 1,000 customers use its technology to enable web-scale networking in their data centers, including more than a third of the Fortune 50 companies. Trials of Cumulus Linux for Voyager will commence with several customers, including Vodafone, U.S. non-profit research and education networks NYSERNet and Internet2, Greek national research and education network GRnet, and CESNET, a developer and operator of national e-infrastructure for development, education, science, and research in the Czech Republic.
"We are excited to have so much bandwidth potential in such a compact form factor, coupled with the capabilities of Cumulus Linux," said Bill Owens, NYSERNet CTO. "We anticipate significant growth in research traffic, and our partnerships with Cumulus and ADVA, along with our participation in TIP, will help us unlock the potential of our network to handle those demands."
OFC 2018 attendees can learn more about Cumulus Linux on Voyager by visiting ADVA at Booth 2601 this week. Cumulus Networks will also demonstrate Cumulus Linux on Voyager during the Open Compute Project Summit at Booth C13 in San Jose, CA, March 20-21.
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