Creating an open source end-to-end 5G connected edge cloud as a programmable, verifiable network with closed-loop control enabling research and demonstration of new concepts
Project Pronto is building and deploying a beta-production end-to-end 5G connected edge cloud leveraging a fully programmable network empowered by unprecedented visibility, verification and closed-loop control capabilities to fuel innovation while helping to secure future network infrastructure. Universities are executing a research agenda enabled by deep programming methods to explore and create verification and closed-loop control.
ONF’s Aether (an open source Private 4G/5G Connected-Edge-Cloud as a Service platform) is being used as the foundation for the Pronto research. The research will be iteratively upstreamed back into the Aether platform to help move the industry towards robust and secure programmable networks. Universities are executing a research agenda enabled by deep programming methods to explore and create verification and closed-loop control.
Stanford University, Cornell University, Princeton University and the Open Networking Foundation, are jointly collaborating on Pronto, which is in part funded by a $30M grant from DARPA.
With the advent of SDN including programmable forwarding and P4, the network has become a deeply programmable platform that can be controlled by network owners to suit their needs. It is now possible to program the control plane and the forwarding pipeline end-to-end on servers, NICs, switches and middle-boxes. With this, we can now reimagine the network as a dynamic distributed computing platform.
With the network now programmable end-to-end and top-to-bottom, software now defines network behavior, control moves from equipment vendors to network owners, and network functions can be placed where they are best suited which may be in hardware, on device software or on the central SDN controller
With programmability and increasing adoption of open source, the operator can take control of their own destiny as they start to leverage the network as a distributed computing platform, and the network becomes an asset for innovation and competitive advantage. Pronto aims to support and further this goal by leveraging network programmability to enable deep and wide network visibility, verification, and closed-loop control, giving programmers tools to build and dynamically deploy customized network functionality in a secure and reliable manner.