ETRI Develops N2OS Signals That Korea Secured Independence In Communication Equipment

Korea’s research team developed first network operation system (OS) that is needed to communication equipment operation. Unlike global communication equipment businesses that use their own OS, Korea’s medium to small-sized businesses have been purchasing foreign OS license and modifying them according to their equipment.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on the 28th that it had cooperated with Korean equipment businesses to develop network OS called ‘N2OS (Neutralized Network OS)’ and prototypes. ETRI started this project in September of 2012 and finally put out its first result after 3 years of efforts.

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<ETRI cooperated with Korean equipment businesses to develop N2OS and prototypes. Employees from Woorinet are inspecting equipment’s functions in equipment model room. Anyang = Staff Reporter Park, Jiho | jihopress@etnews.com>

Network OS, which is a major software that manages hardware sources, interprets internet packet (traffic), detects obstacle, and transmits to optimum equipment. Korean businesses purchase commercialized OS such as ZebOS, Pika, Cumulos, and etc. and use them for IP Infusion.

Some products’ full packages cost almost 3 million dollars (about 3.5 billion KRW) and need to pay every year a maintenance cost that is applicable to 20%. It is a considerable amount of burden for medium to small-sized equipment businesses. However it is possible to reduce cost and handle businesses’ needs in fast manner if Korean OS is used.

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<After working for 3 years since 2012, ETRI cooperated with Korea’s equipment businesses and succeeded in developing first Korean network OS called ‘N2OS’ and prototypes. Above picture shows block diagram of N2OS.>

N2OS provides tunneling function that connects widely-used L2 and L3 switches and 2 kinds of networks. It has many protocol functions that are needed for switches and routers and also many advantages such as availability, expendability, and reusability. Variety of manager functions such as Policy Manager and Command Manager, and etc. increase convenience in uses.

ETRI made N2OS to public in open source-form and transfers this technology to businesses that want this technology after receiving certain payment. Although it is different depending on size of introduction, it is about 60% cheaper compared to commercialized OS on unit standard. As applicable equipment increases, effect of cost reduction feels a lot stronger.

Mobile communication companies that need to decrease cost of system investment (CAPEX) can decrease purchase cost by using product, which has N2OS installed in Whitebox Switch that does not have OS. According to market investigative company called Infonetics, Whitebox Switch market is continuing average of 66.4% growth per year.

Director Ryu Ho Yong of ETRI’s Network SW Platform Research said that ETRI is currently contemplating about a plan to support technology by opening it to foreign software house to support industry commercialization. He also said that it will have many advantages in many ways such as price, customizing, handling of needs, and etc. because it is Korean OS.

ETRI also introduce 2 types of prototypes along with N2OS. It installed N2OS into Taiwan’s equipment business’s Acton product instead of its previous OS as well as Korea’s transmission equipment business called Woorinet’s APN. APN is a small-sized model of Carrier Ethernet that is a type of transmission equipment.

Team Leader Park Sung Hyuk of Woorinet said that medium to small-sized businesses need 257,000 to 857,000 dollars (300 million to 1 billion KRW) if they want to purchase OS with similar functions. He also predicted that it can be used for variety of purposes such as startups and university education if thresholds to enter network market become lower due to low price.

Although it took a first step into this project, it still has a long way to go. To satisfy businesses that are already familiar with foreign products with advanced specifications and multi-functions, it needs to speed up its development of next-generation functions such as virtualization and others. It is predicted that schedule for network OS development project is 5 years, and ETRI still has a lot of work to do in remaining 2 years.

Director Ryu said that ETRI is planning to pursue developments of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) and Software Definition Networking (SDN100) function in second half of 2015. He also said that this product will be upgraded at the end of this project as it will guarantee service continuity of 99.999%.

Staff Reporter An, Hochun | hcan@etnews.com