Microsoft Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC)

Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC) is a set of program components for control of switches and other network devices with broad functionality. SONiC operates on the platform Linux- a distribution kit Debian and distribution kits of this core from version 3.16.

On March 11, 2016 it became known of the statement of Microsoft in which the company noted release of the first in the history product on the Linux platform - Software for Open Networking in the Cloud (SONiC)^[1].

SONiC (2016) components

The company noted: SONiC is not a prototype, but the real product operating in structure of switches of data centers of Microsoft. Did not specify a detail of digging.

SONiC can work at different hardware platforms by means of the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) specification accepted by the Open Compute Project (OCP) project in the summer of 2015. SAI are the standardized API for programming of the integrated circuits ASIC in network equipment. It allows the same program SONiC components to work on devices of different vendors.

Model of component interaction of SONiC (2016)

SAI supports tunneling, management of L3 routing, the QoS setup (Quality of Service), etc. The SAI code is open (it is written on C).

Microsoft declared lack of sales plans of SONiC or support, including - in implementation. SONiC is an open project in which anyone can take part. The source code of a product will be distributed under several free licenses, including GNU GPL and Apache. A part of the code is published on the website GitHub. It is possible get access to the code, to other sections of the project from its official page.

The software of SONiC is the basis for one more project of Microsoft — the Azure Cloud Switch (ACS) operating system. SONiC — the same ACS, but intended for the third-party companies.

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