Open Source Router

1. Open-source router firm looks
   Vyatta, an open-source router company, released the first beta version of its WAN router code this week, with the goal of becoming the networking equivalent of Linux or Firefox, but taking aim at Cisco instead of Microsoft. Vyatta's software is based on code developed by the eXtensible Open Route Platform (XORP), begun in 2002 as an open-source router software project. Vyatta's code combines a modified Linux operating system with XORP and runs on standard x86 PC hardware. The vendor says it is targeting small business and mid-size enterprise branch office networks with a product that can cost 50% to 90% less than mid-range commercial WAN routers from Cisco, Juniper or Alcatel.
                                    
2. Open source router is ready
   The International Computer Science Institute recently released the first version of its eXtensible Open Router Platform (XORP). The XORP project was announced earlier this year as an effort to build an open source, low cost routing platform for every type of network users, from academic researchers to enterprises and home users. The code runs on commodity Intel-based PC and server hardware, and includes a scripting language, allowing users to automate some router configuration tasks and management operations. The software is available for use for any non-commercial purposes (meaning equipment vendors cannot sell boxes based on the code) and is licensed under a similar license as the open source Berkeley System Distribution (BSD) Unix operating system.
                                                            
3. Open source router company
   Vyatta is a San Mateo company comprising a stealthy group of developers who have been building an open source router to challenge San Jose networking giant Cisco. This morning it has opened itself to the public. Here is a press release we got last night (downloads file). As usual, when it comes to things telecom, Om beats us to the punch, and has already offered superior analysis here in his Business 2.0 piece. The versatile open-source application can direct data traffic for a giant corporation as easily as it can manage a home Wi-Fi network. And that’s what makes it as disruptive as a leaf blower in a feather factory: Vyatta’s router will cost about a fifth the price of comparable models from big networking equipment makers such as Cisco Systems.
                                     
4. Open source router software
   ICSI's eXtensible Open Router Platform (XORP) has released its open source router software. XORP differs from commercially available routers in several aspects, which are designed to make it more user-friendly, adaptable, and stable. XORP is designed for extensibility, so that it can simultaneously satisfy several user groups: network researchers needing a platform for experimentation, network operators needing a low-cost stable routing platform on commodity hardware, network equipment vendors with special purpose hardware, and network application writers looking for an open platform to support their applications. XORP is ideal for experimentation, and has the ability to 'understand' scripting in practically any language, which allows a user to come up with new routing applications using existing code. In addition, the XORP architecture is compartmentalized so that should something go wrong in one area, the other areas are not compromised.
   
   
5. Hardware for open-source router
   Vyatta, which emerged from stealth mode with the beta launch of its Open Flexible Router last February, has now committed to a hardware strategy, mostly as a bid to appeal to enterprise networking and IT administrators, said Dave Roberts, Vyatta VP of strategy and marketing. California-based company plans to sell off-the-shelf hardware, pre-configured with OFR, in the mid-range market. "To address  Linksys' SoHo market, you need to be very cost conscious we're not at that point yet," Roberts said. And to move up the stack to large ISP routers and the like would require specifically engineered hardware, which Vyatta is not yet ready to do, he added.
                                                                        
6. Open source network router
   Freesco was developed in the open source tradition as an alternative to routing products offered by Cisco, 3-Com, Accend, Nortel etc. All of these companies offer products that are well made, but they are also proprietary and expensive. Between the cost of the equipment and support, you'll spend a great deal and only address one or two of your networking needs. Additionally, by being closed source (proprietary), many of these products restrict the user from modifying the source software to better suit their needs and easily fix problems that arise. As many of us who work in the IS industry know, Management is always looking for ways to make work more efficient and decrease expenses. At the same time though, the IS department is usually restricted by budgetary constraints that prevent it from implementing products that would do just that, cut costs and make people's work easier and more cost effective.
                                                                          
7. Open Source Router Cuts Costs
   Vyatta and Sangoma Technologies announced a deal that will put Vyatta’s Open Flexible Router (OFR) on Sangoma’s WANPIPE PCI cards. Vyatta's OFR is an open source routing code based on the XORP routing project out of the International Computer Sciences Institute (ICSI) at Berkeley. The code includes OSPF, BGP and RIP routing protocols, stateful firewalling and network address translation (NAT). Vyatta has tried to build a development community around OFR much the way Red Hat has done with Linux. The code will ride on Sangoma Technologies’ current PCI cards supporting its WANPIPE driver. The cards can ship with serial and digital interfaces from T1 to T3. 
                                          
8. Vyatta is building a business around Open Flexible Router
   The one-year-old company Vyatta is attempting to grow a community around the Open Flexible Router (OFR) it has compiled with several already available pieces of software -- and perhaps bring something new to the router market.Vyatta launched its online community last month, and posted an early beta version of the software on its Web site. The intention is to create software that users can install on off-the-
   shelf commodity hardware and tweak to their specific needs, the company says. There has been open source routing code out there for a long time," says Dave Roberts, Vyatta's vice president of strategy and marketing, "so that in and of itself is not new. What we've done is package it together so people don't have to do it themselves. And we've wrapped an interface around it so it's easier to use. 
                                    
9. Clack Graphical Open Source Router
   The Clack Graphical Router application gives students a low-overhead and intuitive mechanism to experiment with and visualize a real-internet router. We use graphical routers operating within a virtual network environment that is connected to the Internet to give students an experience that is both realistic and easy to understand. Clack is a web-accessible Java applet that let's students peer inside a modular graphical router and see how traffic flows between different router blocks. Clack lets students analyze how changes in router functionality or configuration impact traffic flowing through the device. Clack is open source and the curriculum we develop will be shared with networking course instructors and other interested parties. We are always looking for more people to join us in developing network curriculum using Clack and in adding new capabilities to the Clack codebase.
                                   
10. Open source router for the SOHO market
    The OpenRouter project aims at the adoption of open source software for the development of an efficient and open architecture router/firewall device. The system being developed offers firewall/routing functionality that addresses the needs for low cost, high performance, open source based, user-friendly system for the SME and SOHO market. The OpenRouter system features LAN, WAN and wireless interfaces to meet the requirements of the SOHO environment. The system is being build using open source software on an embedded Linux platform, running on Intel StrongARM. For the scope of the project, off-the-self open source components will be used for the basic networking functionality and new modules will be developed for the integration, maintenance, operation, configuration and software upgrade subsystems. The project is part of the European Commission IST programme, under Key-action IV.3 (Research in & take-up of Open Source / Free Software).