Projects/IncubatorApplication/Quantum

author: Dan Wendlandt ( dan@nicira.com )

Project codename: Quantum

Summary (one sentence abstract of the project): Quantum is a virtual network service that provides a tenant-facing API to describe L2 connectivity between "interfaces" from other OpenStack services such as Nova.

Detailed Description:

Quantum is a service that manages virtual/physical switches to provide:


 * Tenant-facing API to support the creation of rich multi-tier network topologies connecting other OpenStack services (Nova VMs now, load-balancers, firewalls, etc. in the future)
 * Plugin mechanism enables new technologies that solve key networking challenges (e.g., VLAN limitations)
 * API extensibility to expose advanced network capabilities (e.g., ACLs, QoS, Netflow)

What is the purpose of the project and vision for it?

Being able to leverage advanced networking capabilities (e.g., multi-tier topologies, security policies, etc) is one key reason why it difficult for users to move workloads to cloud-based solutions like OpenStack. In the long-term Quantum expose many of the rich network capabilities supported by advanced by physical or virtual network devices.

Quantum will do so in a "pluggable" way, such that this network functionality can be provided by a variety of open-source and propriety technologies.

Quantum can be orchestrated directly by the tenant, or treated as a building block for more sophisticated orchestration services.

Basic roadmap for the project:

https://launchpad.net/quantum/diablo

Location of project source code:

http://launchpad.net/quantum

Programming language, required technology dependencies:

Python. Targets same set of packages as Nova/Switch/Glance.

'''Is project currently open sourced? What license?''':

Yes. Apache 2.0.

Level of maturity of software and team:

Using launchpad for blueprints, bugs, development tracking. Activity has been high and consistent since project was launched at the Diablo summit.

From Launchpad:

quantum has 44 active branches owned by 12 people and 4 teams. There were 260 commits by 17 people in the last month.

Team includes developers from Cisco, Citrix, Midokura, Nicira, and Rackspace, with a core team that is near-full time on Quantum.

Code review process is in place.

pep8 is clean.

Weekly meetings on #openstack-meeting IRC channel.

Proposed project technical lead and qualifications:

Primary Contact:


 * Dan Wendlandt http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dan-wendlandt/7/a41/69a

Others Admins of NetStack Team:


 * Rick Clark http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rick-clark/6/118/279

Other core project developers/contributors and qualifications :

(Apologies if anyone was omitted. If so, please let me know)


 * Arvind Somya http://www.linkedin.com/pub/arvind-somya/5/836/388
 * Brad Hall http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brad-hall/0/b92/16
 * Debo Dutta http://www.linkedin.com/in/dedutta
 * Edgar Magana http://www.linkedin.com/pub/edgar-magana/7/351/485
 * Joe Heck http://www.linkedin.com/in/josephheck
 * Mark Voelker http://www.linkedin.com/in/markvoelker
 * Rajaram Mallya https://launchpad.net/~rajarammallya
 * Ram Durairaj http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ramesh-durairaj/0/528/214
 * Ryu Ishimoto http://www.linkedin.com/in/ryu25
 * Rohit Agarwalla http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=14929109
 * Salvatore Orlando http://www.linkedin.com/pub/salvatore-orlando/6/baa/431
 * Santhosh Kumar Muniraj http://www.linkedin.com/pub/santhosh-kumar-muniraj/11/5a2/72
 * Shweta Padubidri
 * Somik Behera http://www.linkedin.com/in/somik
 * Sumit Naiksatam http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sumit-naiksatam/1/897/84a
 * Tyler Smith
 * Troy Toman http://www.linkedin.com/pub/troy-toman/0/35/878
 * Ying Liu http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ying-liu/3/5ba/327

Infrastructure requirements (testing, etc):

Core Quantum service can be tested with only standard python dependencies.

Some plugins have dependency on particular pieces of network gear (e.g., Cisco Nexus). Currently, the creators of the plugins are responsible for device-specific testing.

Have all current contributors agreed to the OpenStack CLA?

Yes

Status:

Applying