Linux Foundation and ETSI Further Collaborate to Drive Harmonization Across Open Source and Open Standards

BILBAO, Spain—Open Source Summit Europe —September 19, 2023 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization focused on fostering innovation through open source, and ETSI, the independent organization providing global standards for ICT services across all sectors of industry, today announced expanded collaboration. While the two organizations have been working together for years, the 2019 formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)  recently has been updated and expanded. 

The formal link between our communities encourages and enables collaboration across communications, promotion and events, as well as common initiatives spanning Network Function Virtualization (NFV) / Cloud-native Network Functions (CNF), Artificial Intelligence, Software Defined Networking,  Autonomous Networks, 5G/6G, and Edge Computing. Specific updates to the MoU include broader mapping of areas of interest to now include additional Linux Foundation project communities such as LF Networking’s CNF initiatives, CAMARA, and Nephio, some of which were not yet created at the time of the initial MOU or its renewal. ETSI has also identified new areas of potential collaboration. These include zero touch network management and ETSI Open Source groups such as OSM and the recently created TeraFlowSDN.

“ETSI is pleased to extend our successful collaboration with the Linux Foundation, which has developed continually over the years,” says Ultan Mulligan, ETSI’s Chief Services Officer. “We have capitalized on this experience to create our own Software Development Groups. These groups will cater for the expected greater use of software in standardization of future technologies such as 6G and will help further extend ETSI’s cooperation with the Linux Foundation.”

“ETSI and the Linux Foundation have worked on harmonizing open source and open standards for the past several years, with examples spanning Cloud Native Functions descriptor specification implementations within projects such as ONAP,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “We are looking forward to expanding this to areas across the stack enabled by automation and AI.” 

About ETSI

ETSI provides members with an open and inclusive environment to support the development, ratification, and testing of globally applicable standards for ICT systems and services across all sectors of industry and society. We are a non-profit body, with more than 900 member organizations worldwide, drawn from over 60 countries and five continents. Our members constitute a diverse pool of large and small private companies, research entities, academia, government, and public organizations. ETSI is officially recognized by the EU as a European Standard Organization (ESO). For more information, please visit us at https://www.esti.org.