Neutron
What is Quantum?
Quantum is a project to provide "network connectivity as a service" between devices managed by other Openstack services such as nova.
Quantum is a result of discussions at the Diablo design summit around improving OpenStack networking. Quantum is not yet officially in Openstack incubation, but we already integrate with Openstack technologies like Nova and hope to be accepted for incubation project soon. If you're a networking geek and like to hack on OpenStack, please join!
Slides describing Quantum from the Diablo Summit (4/28/11)
Why Quantum?
- Support flexible model for creating network topologies between VM interface and other network devices.
- Example: create multi-tier applications that go beyond what is possible with nova's FlatManager or VlanManager
- Open the floodgates to let anyone build services (open or closed) that plug into Openstack networks.
- Examples: VPN-aaS, firewall-aaS, IDS-aaS.
- Enable innovation plugins that overcomes common cloud networking problems
- Example: avoid VLAN limits, provide strong end-to-end QoS guarantees.
Current Status
Quantum was proposed at the Diablo summit (end of April 2011) and in just a few months we've made a ton of progress.
We have the basic web services API, CLI tools, and a plugin that works on Linux (KVM + XenServer) when used in conjunction with changes that will be landing in nova with the Diablo-3 release (end-of-July). We will be publishing tutorials once the Diable-3 release it available. Additional plugins are also in the works, as is a framework to allow plugins to provide extensions that expose advanced functionality.
Participate
To get code, ask questions, view blueprints, etc, see: Quantum Launchpad Page
Email list: https://launchpad.net/~netstack
If you would like to participate, please send mail to the netstack list.
Major Areas of Dev Activity
- Nova Network Refactoring and Nova Quantum Integration
- API Extensions
- API Authentication
- API Client Library
- API Client: Openstack Client GUI
