The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open
source, today announced the opening of enrollment for
LFS165x - Introduction to
Open Source Networking Technologies. Students may pre-register now for this free course, and full
course content will be available beginning in early August.
The 2017 Open Source Jobs Report from The Linux Foundation and
Dice found nearly half of hiring managers are looking to hire individuals with
networking expertise, and 55 percent report that formal training or
certification is a priority when choosing new hires. On top of that, the way
networks are built and deployed is evolving, with open source networking projects
being responsible for much of this transformation.
LFS165x explores open source networking projects, from The Linux
Foundation and beyond, that are shaping the future of networking and telecoms.
Designed for open source enthusiasts, university students, network architects
and engineers, security architects and engineers, and system engineers, this
course offers an introduction to open source networking.
This course covers the open networking stack from top to bottom,
starting from networking hardware disaggregation and modern 100G and 400G
switches, through network operating systems, network controllers,
virtualization and orchestration. Students will develop an understanding of the
use cases and technical options for modern open networking in enterprises,
service providers, and cloud datacenters. The course provides familiarity with
the following open source networking projects and their use cases:
- Open Compute Project, ONIE,
Akraino
- FD.io, OVS, IO Visor, DPDK,
Open Dataplane, P4
- OpenSwitch, Open Network Linux,
FRR, DANOS, SONIC, FBOSS
- OpenDaylight, Tungsten Fabric
(OpenContrail), ONOS, CORD, Open Security Controller
- ONAP, OPNFV
- PNDA, SNAS
"Open source software is becoming core to the networking industry,
with software-defined networking and network function virtualization sitting at
the heart of coming 5G technologies," said Linux Foundation General Manager,
Networking Arpit Joshipura. "There is a major need for more individuals with
the qualifications to develop and implement these technologies. This course,
along with other open source networking courses from The Linux Foundation and
edX, is a great first step for individuals looking to break into this
fast-growing industry, and also to help industry veterans gain a baseline
understanding of these concepts."
Students will leave the course with an understanding of:
- The software-defined and open
source networking landscape
- How networking hardware is
being disaggregated
- How open network operating
systems (NOS) run on different networking hardware
- Ways to automate networking
tasks
- How software-defined network
(SDN) controllers manage underlay networks
- How network function
virtualization (NFV) can help reduce the complexity of today's data center
environments
- Ways orchestration tools can
build a bridge between applications and networking
The Linux Foundation and edX already offer two additional open
source networking courses, LFS163x - Introduction to
ONAP: Complete Network Automation and LFS164x - NFV
Acceleration: An Introduction to OPNFV, which also provide useful knowledge for individuals looking to
improve their open source networking skills.
LFS165x was developed by Reza Toghraee, a network and security
expert. For the last 20 years, Toghraee has designed and deployed many large
campus and datacenter projects, leveraging his skills in networking, security,
virtualization, compute, and storage across a range of major networking
vendors.
In 2013, Toghraee started exploring the hardware and software of
Ethernet switches and was inspired to build an AVB (Audio Video Bridging)
Ethernet switch by designing hardware and software protocols. Soon he
discovered SDN and early SDN controllers and dedicated his time to promoting
and contributing to SDN and the OpenNetworking community. He is the director of
ArpaWare Ltd in the UK, a professional services consultancy for SDN, NFV,
network automation, network virtualization and cloud projects. Toghraee is the
author of Learning OpenDaylight and he is currently authoring
another book about Data Plane programming.
Registration is open now for LFS165x on edX.org. There is no charge for the course, though a verified certificate
of completion is available for $99.