Neutron

What is Quantum?

Quantum is an incubated OpenStack project to provide "network connectivity as a service" between interface devices (e.g., vNICs) managed by other Openstack services (e.g., nova).

Quantum is a result of discussions at the Diablo design summit around improving OpenStack networking. If you're a networking geek and like to hack on OpenStack, please join!

More Info:

• Slides describing Quantum from the Diablo Summit (4/28/11)
• Quantum Design Principles

Why Quantum?

• Support advanced network topologies beyond what is possible with nova's FlatManager or VlanManager
  • Example: create multi-tier web application topology
• Let anyone build advanced network services (open and closed source) that plug into Openstack networks.
  • Examples: VPN-aaS, firewall-aaS, IDS-aaS, data-center-interconnect-aaS.
• Enable innovation plugins (open and closed source) that introduce advanced network capabilities
  • Example: use L2-in-L3 tunneling to avoid VLAN limits, provide end-to-end QoS guarantees, used monitoring protocols like NetFlow.

Using Quantum

Latest Release: 2011.3 "diablo" (9/22/11) download (tar.gz)

Quantum is still a young project and our documentation is still a work in progress. Please see:

• Quantum Administrator Guide  : Directions to install, configure and run Quantum with OpenStack Nova.
• Quantum API Guide  : Detailed information for programming against v1.0 of the Quantum web services API.

If you are looking for Quantum packaged for your Linux distribution, please see: QuantumPackages .

Current Project Status

Quantum was proposed at the Diablo summit (end of April 2011) and in just six months we've made a ton of progress.

The 2011.3 "diablo" release included:

• v1.0 of the Quantum API
• API Extensibility Framework
• API Client LIbrary and CLI
• Integration with OpenStack Nova via the QuantumManager
• Prototype integration with OpenStack Dashboard
• Two publicly available plugins:
  • Open vSwitch Plugin
  • Cisco UCS/Nexus Plugin

Participate

To get code, ask questions, view blueprints, etc, see: Quantum Launchpad Page

There is not yet any developer documentation to guide those looking to modify Quantum itself or add a new Quantum plugin. The best resource for is looking at the code itself and sending questions to the netstack email list.

If you would like to participate, please send mail to the netstack list: https://launchpad.net/~netstack

You can also attend our regular IRC meetings, which start one hour after the main openstack meeting, on the same #openstack-meeting channel: http://wiki.openstack.org/Network/Meetings

Blueprints for Major Areas of Dev Activity

The next major set of tasks will be decided on at the Essex summit. If you'll be in Boston, you are welcome to participate in discussions, look for the NetStack track.