Anuket Project

Merger Option - August Governing Board input

Owned by Al Morton
Last updated: Aug 07, 2020

For the August Governing Board meeting, we need to cover 3 specific areas (the first three headings below) in single slides.  Additional material has also been captured.

Wording for the three Slides

Description

  • Full Merger of equal communities: a "Re-imagining" that produces a project where both communities are needed for success.
  • Merger Outcome: a single organization where telcos work together with vendors and other interested organizations and individuals to define, implement and test the cloud architectures that fulfill the common requirements of telecom applications
  • Community and Board Decision is needed about the name of the organization
    • Create a new name for the merged organization, or
    • Find a way to keep existing organization names
  • OPNFV Release process already allows for frequent project self-releases, so any CNTT release schedule can be accommodated.
  • Ensure all leadership needs and project activities are covered in the organizational structure
    • New TSC Elections and Officers (when organizations combine, see timeline below).
  • New Structures can be accommodated by mutual agreement

(points below are mostly structural recommendations with a lot of flexibility! Probably do not appear on the Description slide)

  • CNTT Work Streams become individual Projects, with PTLs, Committers, Contributors, and Project descriptions.
    • This can be a structure where the existing workstreams have 1:1 mapping to new formal projects, or some restructuring is possible/optional.
  • Build new WGs according to CNTT’s need for tiered structure (if any WG are needed).
  • Existing OPNFV projects could choose to continue to be independent projects or choose to combine with new projects being formed
  • Commitment from all OPNFV+CNTT members to supply a fixed amount of resources to both requirements and code development.
  • New project to Integrate all relevant project outputs into a cohesive deliverable for automated Conformance testing.
  • Reduce overall governance structure of OPNFV+CNTT, where possible. Reduce the overall number of meetings related to former CNTT activities.

Define Work Product, Interfaces and Dependencies

Two focus areas: requirements and development/implementation focused projects.

Work Products

  • Requirement projects
    • reference model, reference architectures, reference conformance specifications
    • Reference model is Jointly approved by GSMA
  • Implementation projects
    • platforms, test cases, tooling guided by specifications released by requirements projects
    • development to support LFN OVP badging programs

Dependencies and Relationships

  • Upstream projects and communities: OpenStack, CNCF, LFN, ETSI NFV, IETF, others (Continue "Working Upstream")

  • The merger option simplifies the relationship with GSMA.

Approximate Timeline

Factors:

  • Governing Board Decision in October 2020 on Fully-fleshed-out plan  (Ideally, an announcement at ONS = late Sept 2020)
  • OPNFV JERMA meta-Release Calendar: December 2020 Release date
  • CNTT Baraque Release in September 2020 (insert additional releases planned...)
  • Current CNTT officer term ends in December 2020
  • Intermediate tasks to flesh-out, post GB decision, such as the structure of the new organization
  • Nomination periods and Elections take about 6 weeks - propose to start the Election Calendar in November 2020 (half of December is unavailable).
  • NewName selection: Community and Marketing

Estimate:  New project in operation in January 2021.


= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Background Info = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Goals for this Option/Description

  1. Create a proposal that has advantages for the Governing Board, OPNFV, and CNTT.
  2. Help everyone recognize that the completeness of conformance testing is the common goal of all, and a unique opportunity for the success of all.
  3. Foster Trust, Transparency, and Truth.

Advantages over Current Mode of Operation

  1. Keep Requirements and Test Code Development together: OPNFV as an opensource and integration project for both OpenStack and K8s virtualization layers.
  2. Increase Communication and understanding of the level of effort involved to complete tasks among all contributors.
    1. OPNFV Charter and Website have been updated several times since January to fit CNTT requirements and mindsets (OPNFV 2.0)
  3. CNTT continues to enjoy LFN support for Zoom bridges, Program Management, Wiki Pages, Event Planning, etc.
    1. Data from LFN Support Survey indicates that < … results>
  4. Participation in both OPNFV and CNTT activities are stimulated by forming a complete conformance solution community. 
  5. NewName Pros:
    1. send the message that it’s not business as usual
    2. help CNTT feel that it is joining a partnership vs. becoming a part of another organization and losing control.

Possible disadvantages

Use fact based points (check when done)

  1. CNTT stakeholders perceive some loss of visibility in the Industry once merged.
  2. Some CNTT Stakeholders leave because they don't like the outcome.
    1. 1[but some think they won’t leave for long. If they still need the common infrastructure that CNTT proposes, and if the merged community is successful, they will come back sooner or later]


Ildiko's further suggestions follow:

Description

Desired outcome of the merge

To create a single organization where the telecom operators can work together with vendors and other interested organizations and individuals to define, implement and test the cloud architectures that fulfill the requirements of telecom applications.

Implementation considerations

  • CNTT and OPNFV to be merged as equal communities
  • Decision is needed about the name of the organization
    • Create a new name for the merged organization, or
    • Find a way to keep existing organization names
  • Ensure all leadership needs and project activities are covered in the organizational structure
    • (If it's not too many details we can list the options here about the work streams as OPNFV projects, Technical Steering Committee, a potential Architecture Committee, etc)
  • Desire to reduce governance complexity and number of meetings within the two organizations if possible

Work Product, Interfaces and Dependencies

Two kinds of focus areas: requirements- and implementation focused projects

Release artifacts

  • Requirement projects
    • reference model, reference architectures, reference conformance specifications
    • Reference model is Jointly approved by GSMA
  • Implementation projects
    • platforms, test cases, tooling guided by specifications released by requirements projects
    • development to support LFN OVP badging programs

Dependencies and Relationships

  • Upstream projects and communities: OpenStack, CNCF, LFN, ETSI NFV, IETF, others
  • The merger option simplifies the relationship[ with GSMA.

Approximate Timeline

Factors

  • Governing Board Decision in October 2020?
  • OPNFV JERMA meta-Release Calendar: December 2020 Release date
  • CNTT Baraque Release in September 2020 (insert additional releases planned...)
  • Current CNTT officer term ends in December 2020
  • Intermediate tasks to flesh-out, post GB decision, such as the structure of the new organization
  • Nomination periods and Elections take about 6 weeks - propose to start the Election Calendar in November 2020 (half of December is unavailable).
  • NewName selection: Community and Marketing

Estimate

New org in operation in January 2021