Vodafone Joins LF Edge as Premier Member, Initiates New Project “InstantX”

Vodafone's strategic partnership with LF Edge extends community’s reach to address  instant data exchange at the far edge

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Open Networking & Edge (ONE) Summit—  April 30, 2024 - LF Edge, an umbrella organization within the Linux Foundation dedicated to fostering an open, interoperable framework for edge computing, announces that Vodafone has joined the project as a Premier member. This new partnership is highlighted by Vodafone’s initiation of a pivotal project for LF Edge, designed to exchange and distribute data in real-time between users in a certain geography through "far-edge" computing power.  

Vodafone, a leader in global telecommunications, joins other existing LF Edge Premier members: AMD, American Tower, Arm, AT&T, AVEVA, Baidu, Charter Communications, Dell Technologies, Dianomic, Equinix, F5, Fujitsu, Futurewei, HP, Huawei, Intel, IBM, NTT, Radisys, RedHat, Samsung, Tencent, VMware, Western Digital, ZEDEDA. This membership empowers Vodafone to leverage the collective capabilities of open source edge computing to develop advanced networks designed for applications that require low latency and high reliability, such as 5G, IoT, augmented and virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles.

As a Premier member, Vodafone will participate actively in the governance of LF Edge, with Sampada Basarkar, Product & Platform Engineering Director at Vodafone, gaining a seat on the project’s Governing Board, Technical Advisory Council, and other committees. This position enables Vodafone to shape the strategic direction of LF Edge projects and the development of industry standards

The newly introduced project, named InstatantX (Instant Exchange), is a cloud and edge cloud platform to exchange and distribute data in real-time between users in a certain geography through "far-edge" computing power. It solves the problem of asynchronous and instant data exchange across clients in the same region while offering that data for off-line processing and self-learning to derive further added-values.

"We are thrilled to welcome Vodafone and their innovative project into our community," said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager, Networking, Edge, and IoT at the Linux Foundation. "Vodafone's active participation will propel our efforts to develop more robust and interoperable edge computing frameworks, particularly enhancing 5G and Mobile Private Network connectivity. Their involvement ensures these technologies are tailored to meet the evolving demands of diverse industries."

Justin Shields, CTO at Vodafone Business, said, "I’m delighted that Sampada has been invited to join the board of LF Edge. As a premier member of LF Edge, Vodafone can bring its own source coding credentials in edge computing to a leading developer community so that it can benefit many more organisations and individuals. Partnering with other companies and developers is the key to unlocking opportunities in edge computing to support ultra-low latency applications that will drive forward the industrial internet."

As an event co-host, LF Edge is onsite at Open Networking & Edge (ONE) Summit this week in San Jose, Calif. Anyone onsite should stop by the booth from project demonstrations and check out LF Edge breakout sessions. Session recordings will be available in the coming weeks. 

To learn more about LF Edge and its impact across the open edge commuting ecosystem, please visit www.lfedge.org.