In announcing its first software release today, the OPEN-O Project is again stressing its perceived advantage over other open source MANO efforts: the inclusion of legacy networks in its network orchestration plans. (See It’s Showtime for OPEN-O and OPEN-O Issues First Software Release.)

Details of that first release, called SUN, were limited, other than the fact it contains two million lines of code and a virtual CPE use case. But OPEN-Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O) ‘s release and comments by its Executive Director Marc Cohn clearly stress the idea of combining management of legacy physical network functions and services with virtualized functions. (See OPEN-O Going Beyond the MANO.)

In fact, a discussion at last week’s Light Reading event in London, OSS in the Era of SDN& NFV, revealed one of the few cracks in the otherwise amiable relationship between OPEN-O and Open Source MANO Community (OSM)over this very topic. Speaking on a panel that included Antonio Elizondo, head of virtualization strategy for Telefónica and an OSM representative, OPEN-O’s Cohn bristled at the suggestion that both open source groups are addressing the gap between so-called brownfield or existing networks and the newer virtualized technologies, insisting his group is going much further down that path.

Elizondo had responded to an audience question on the topic by pointing to his organization’s work with a TM Forum Catalyst project on defining VNFs from a traditional OSS/BSS perspective.

Keep reading on Light Reading.