Ibrahim Haddad

In previous LWM articles, we have discussed the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), Carrier Grade Linux (CGL), and the momentum Linux is gaining in telecom. We have also covered the current technological trend of companies moving away from proprietary technologies towards open and standardized platform components (hardware, operating system, and middleware). Telecom platforms have very stringent requirements related to availability, performance, security, and reliability. To help telecom platforms move away from proprietary operating systems, OSDL has created a working group, Carrier Grade Linux, to specify requirements and subsequently help create open source projects to implement the missing features in Linux, thus meeting the CGL requirements. The result is the availability of a choice between a proprietary operating system and a Linux kernel with carrier grade f... (more)

Moving Toward Open Platforms

This article explores the recent trend toward open telecom platform solutions as proposed by three key industry consortia - PICMG, OSDL, and the SA Forum - working in the areas of highly available hardware, middleware, and carrier grade operating systems. IntroductionTraditionally, communications and data service networks were built on proprietary platforms that had to meet very specific availability, reliability, performance, and service response time requirements. Now, communications service providers are challenged to cost effectively meet their needs for new architectures, ne... (more)

"Secure Coding in C and C++" A Linux.SYS-CON.com Interview With Robert Seacord

Robert C. Seacord, a senior vulnerability analyst at the CERT/Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, has just published the book Secure Coding in C and C++ (Addison-Wesley, 2005). I sat down with him to discuss software security in the Linux environment and elsewhere. LWM: There's an ongoing debate over whether Linux is more secure than Windows. Some people argue that since Linux's source code is freely available, it makes it easy for hackers to implement hacks and break into Linux systems, whereas this becomes more difficult with proprietary operating systems. What'... (more)

HA: What Does It Take?

Providing continuous service availability is a crucial factor for many industries, especially in the telecommunication sector. For instance, people always expect to hear a dial tone when they pick up their phones, and they always do. This is the level of reliability and service availability that is needed in the newly converged mobile phones IP networks. The level of reliability and high availability present in circuit- switched networks has not yet been achieved in IP packet-based networks. Without the ability to keep services highly available (HA), telecom platforms and any ot... (more)

Server Features in the Linux Kernel

There is a lot of ongoing work to make the Linux kernel a viable operating system option for platforms running mission-critical applications. However, there is still some work to be done with respect to supporting new features. This article addresses some needed features and mechanisms in the Linux kernel - features that are necessary in server nodes operating in mission-critical environments. Such environments include telecom, where reliability, performance, availability, and security are extremely important. The focus is on four features: a cluster communication protocol, suppor... (more)