Network softwarization brings software development aspects to networking. We discussed how SDN enables a logically centralized control to the data plane in previous chapters. In this chapter, we will look into the larger ecosystem of Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and orchestration.

The Linux Foundation leads many open source networking and orchestration projects such as OPNFV, ONAP, PNDA, DPDK, SNAS, ODPi, and FD.io. We will look into how to use Python to extend these projects, and leverage them to build and orchestrate enterprise network solutions. While many of these are built with multiple languages, Python plays an important role in most of these projects as a tool for building and testing, if not as the coding language. We will look into how Python is used in configuring and installing these projects, while addressing common issues faced in configuring these enterprise-grade projects.

The Linux Foundation has a large community bonding effort on bringing various companies and organizations together for a set of open source projects. We looked at a few remarkable projects for NFV and orchestration in the previous recipes of the chapter. In fact, there are many more projects from the Linux Foundation that are worth looking at, and this list keeps growing. You can find a list of active Linux Foundation projects from its website: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/projects.