XOS Overview

XOS provides a framework for operationalizing a collection of disaggregated components. More specifically, XOS defines an Extensible Service Control Plane that provides value in two ways:

• It serves as a single unifying OAM interface to a collection of backend services, avoiding the operational silos that otherwise result from disaggregation. This includes a framework for creating and operating on services across organizational boundaries, across a range of implementation choices, and across multiple tenants.

• It manages end-to-end service chains across a service mesh, supporting visibility and control at the granularity of individual subscribers or flows. This provides a fine-grain means to correlate diagnostic and monitoring information, allocate resources and isolate performance, and distribute/migrate functionality.

XOS currently has two use cases:

• Network Edge Mediator (NEM): XOS is being used to provide a mediation layer for CORD-based edge solutions, including SEBA (SDN-Enabled Broadband Access) and COMAC (Converged Multi-Access and Core). NEM replaces the "CORD Controller" component of earlier CORD solutions (e.g., R-CORD, M-CORD, and E-CORD).

• End-to-End Service Chains in a Multi-Cloud: XOS is being used to manage end-to-end service chains that span customer premises, operator edge sites, Internet exchanges, and commodity clouds.

For additional white papers describing XOS, see the project wiki page.