Nokia Siemens joins Linux Foundation to push 'telco' Linux

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 14 August 2007 05:22

Business IT - Technology

Nokia Siemens Networks, one of the world's leading manufacturers of telecommunications carrier network equipment, has joined the Linux Foundation in a move that is expected to improve so-called 'carrier-grade' Linux. It is one of several initiatives by the company in this direction.

According to the Linux Foundation, "Nokia Siemens Networks...will be working with the [Foundation] specifically on Linux-based technologies for use in user plane and control plane network elements, as well as embedded applications. This is expected to lead to further integration of CGL specifications with the Linux Standard Base (LSB) to deliver a standard that works for these expanding Linux markets."

According to Stephan Scholz, CTO of Nokia Siemens Networks, "Nokia Siemens Networks will play an active role as a Linux Foundation member by contributing both financial and technical resources to the Linux ecosystem to make sure it remains state of the art,." He added: "In Linux, the most important things for us are certified carrier grade interfaces as well as the interoperability between various Linux distributions. We look forward to working with the Linux Foundation and continue to use Linux in our commercially available products."

Nokia and Siemens, prior to the formation of their joint venture were co-founders along with other major telco equipment makers of the Scope Alliance in January 2006. The alliance gives as its mission "to enable and promote the availability of open carrier grade base platforms based on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware & software building blocks, and to promote interoperability to better serve service providers and consumers," and its aims as being "accelerating the deployment of carrier grade base platforms for service provider applications."