Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) has joined ON.Lab, a nonprofit focused on developing open source software defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV) and cloud technologies.

By joining the Open Network Operating System (ONOS) and Central Office Re-architected as a Datacenter (CORD) projects led by ON.Lab, Comcast diversifies ON.Lab's open source communities, comprising service providers, vendors, individual contributors, and other collaborators, all working to redefine network access through SDN, NFV and cloud computing.

The open source initiatives are intended to enable service delivery platforms for quickly creating and deploying new services, independent of the access network architecture. A key component of the evolution is software distribution of the platform stack comprising ONOS, an SDN OS for service providers.

"Software defined networking and network functions virtualization are powerful, fast-evolving tools for network transformation," said Dr. Nagesh Nandiraju, director, Network Architecture at Comcast. "We look forward to bringing our perspective and experience to the fantastic community of technologists already working on these open source projects."

The ONOS and CORD communities comprise service provider partners AT&T, China Unicom, Comcast, Google, NTT Communications, SK Telecom, and Verizon; vendors Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson (ONOS only), Fujitsu, Huawei (ONOS only), Intel, NEC, Nokia, Radisys and Samsung, plus several system integrators.