Initial focus on collaboration with LF Edge for functional specification of the Grid Nodes
BARCELONA, Mobile World Congress 2023 – February 27, 2023 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, and the Open Grid Alliance (OGA) , an organization focused on evolving the Internet into a worldwide platform capable of running global services on shared infrastructure, today announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for formal collaboration. Collaboration includes multiple foundations across the Linux Foundation with LF Edge being the primary.
Catalyzed by the emergence of edge infrastructure, 5G networks and billions of IoT devices, the grid is the next step in the evolution of the Internet. Globally distributed, the grid weaves together a public and private fabric of compute, data and intelligence to enable contextually aware, immersive applications at the edge, on demand.
“Co-creation across multiple sectors contributing to ´dirt-to-cloud´ stack of the Open Grid is the core principle of the OGA. This demands deep collaboration with the industry bodies influencing various parts of this stack. We are excited to partner with the Linux Foundation as we start to lay the foundation for this stack”, said Kaniz Mahdi, Chairperson of the OGA, and SVP Technology Architecture & Innovation, Deutsche Telekom.
Edge computing places applications and services close to the point of use, as the grid marries software-defined flexibility with edge infrastructure. LF Edge projects provide the required automation for edge infrastructure to be used to build autonomous grid infrastructure. These projects create new use cases and proof points that cover aspects of grid computing. The collaboration between LF Edge and OGA is aimed at creating synergies that will accelerate a full-scale, global and operational deployment of the Open Grid.
“Aligning LF Edge with Open Grid Alliance is the next step in enabling the internet to distribute data when and where it’s needed,” said Arpit Joshipura, General Manager, Networking, Edge and IoT, the Linux Foundation. “Integrating LF Edge architecture and use cases into open grid infrastructure provides a vendor-neutral approach to re-architect the Internet with the grid topologies needed to scale globally.”
The agreement enables both organizations to formally support collaboration and work together in creating the open software defined and architected by OGA work groups. LF Edge projects and initiatives will work closely with the OGA workstreams to mutually develop the use cases and underlying technology of the Open Grid.
About Open Grid Alliance
Open Grid Alliance (http://opengridalliance.org) is a member-supported 501(c)(6) organization that produces collaborative, vendor-neutral strategies to re-architect the Internet with grid topologies needed to scale globally. Founded in 2020 by over 30 global technology companies, the Open Grid Alliance welcomes additional participants, contributors, and supporters.
About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.
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Customer discussions at the kiosk were both wide ranging and in-depth. Of particular concern is how to merge requirements for compute intensive onboard processing (i.e. on the robot) with cloud processing. There is a mix of needs, including mapping, handling unusual and as-yet-unknown objects, failure prediction, real-time speech recognition, background noise removal, natural language processing, and more. Some needs can be met in the cloud, and some demand “never down, never out” capability. The former can be met with containerization, Kubernetes, and other CICD and automation tools, while the latter requires intensive onboard computation. Of course, any onboard computation faces severe limitations in size (form-factor), weight, and available power. It’s a fascinating problem in edge computing and engineering tradeoffs.