The Linux Foundation, which houses a slew of open source projects, and open standards body ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Institute) signed a memorandum of understanding to “bring open source and standards closer and foster synergies between them.”

Formalizing the relationship between the two groups will enable faster information sharing and speed the deployment of open networking technologies, according to the organizations. It could also lead to common initiatives related to interoperability and conformance testing.

The open source groups already work together. But they also have their own initiatives related to NFV, management and network orchestration (MANO), artificial intelligence (AI), and edge computing.

For example, ESTI has its Edge Computing group, and the Linux Foundation in January launched its own edge computing initiative called LF Edge that now serves as an umbrella organization for the foundation’s edge projects including Akraino. Additionally, ETSI has its Industry Specification Group for NFV (ISG NFV), while the Linux Foundation has several open networking projects that seem to overlap with ETSI’s efforts including OpenDaylight (ODL), Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP), and Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV).

So it will be interesting to watch how the two organizations work together on these common projects.

The organizations’ similar groups “will remain separate entities but will continue to collaborate,” a Linux Foundation spokesperson told SDxCentral in response to emailed questions.

ETSI and the Linux Foundation also provided more specifics of how they will collaborate in a chart posted online earlier today. It says Akraino — which is the Linux Foundation’s open source edge software stack — will incorporate the ETSI MEC APIs directly into this and other LF projects. The two groups also say they’ll “explore opportunities for interoperability” between Akraino and ETSI’s Open Source NFV MANO (OSM) platform as a “new type of infrastructure and virtual infrastructure manager.”

When it comes to how the SDN and NFV groups will play nice, the two organizations say the Linux Foundation’s ODL, ONAP, and OPNFV, along with ETSI ISG NFV will all work together on NFV proofs of concept and collaborate on things like ONAP using ISG NFV specifications as development guidelines for implementation. Meanwhile ISG NFV will apply ONAP implementation feedback as it evolves and maintains its specifications.

“This agreement with ETSI signals it’s possible to reach a harmonization of collaborative activities across open source and standards for the networking industry,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager of networking, edge, and IoT at the Linux Foundation. “Working together results in less fragmentation, faster deployments, and more streamlined innovation.”