[dpdk-dev] Project Governance and Linux Foundation

[qin.chunhua at zte.com.cn]

ZTE is supportive of improving the DPDK project governance including 
moving the project to the Linux Foundation. 
DPDK has been used in lots of ZTE's equipments and solutions  such as 
BBU,RNC,EPC,vEPC,vBRAS,vCPE,vRouter,vSwitch,and so on for many years. 
We have also done some optimization in DPDK. If  the DPDK  project 
governance moves to the Linux Foundation,we think this will promote ZTE 
and other companies to contribute in DPDK. 
 
Thanks
Chunhua
 
-----Original Message-----
From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of O'Driscoll, Tim
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 4:33 PM
To: dev at dpdk.org; users at dpdk.org
Subject: [dpdk-dev] Project Governance and Linux Foundation
 
This email is being sent on behalf of: Cavium, Cisco, Intel, NXP & Red 
Hat.
 
 
Since its creation as an open source project in 2013, DPDK has grown 
significantly. The number of DPDK users, contributors, commercial products 
that use DPDK and open source projects that depend on it have all 
increased consistently over that time. DPDK is now a key ingredient in 
networking and NFV, and we need to ensure that the project structure and 
governance are appropriate for such a critical project, and that they 
facilitate the project's continued growth.
 
For over a year now we've been discussing moving DPDK to the Linux 
Foundation. We believe it's now time to conclude that discussion and make 
the move. The benefits of doing this would include:
- The infrastructure for a project like DPDK should not be owned and 
controlled by any single company.
- Remove any remaining perception that DPDK is not truly open.
- Allow the project to avail of the infrastructure and services provided 
by the Linux Foundation. These include things like: Ability to host 
infrastructure for integration and testing (the FD.io CSIT lab is an 
example of this - see https://wiki.fd.io/view/CSIT/CSIT_LF_testbed); 
Support for legal issues including trademarks and branding, and the 
ability to sign agreements on behalf of the project; Ability to pool 
resources for events and brand promotion; Safe haven for community IP 
resources.
 
We don't propose to debate the details here. Instead, an open discussion 
session on DPDK Project Growth has been included in the agenda for the 
DPDK Summit Userspace 2016 event in Dublin. We propose using that session 
to agree that the DPDK project will move to the Linux Foundation, and then 
to move on to discussing the specifics. Things that we'll need to consider 
include:
- Whether DPDK moves to the Linux Foundation as an independent project or 
as part of a larger project like FD.io.
- Creation of a project charter similar to those created for FD.io (
https://fd.io/governance/technical-community-charter) and Open vSwitch 
(see 
http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20160619/5a2df53e/attachment-0001.pdf
).
- Agreement on budget, membership levels etc. A draft budget was created 
by the LF during previous discussions (
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3686Xb_jf4FtxdX8Mus9UwIxUb2vI_ppmJV5GnXcLg/edit#gid=302618256
), but it is possible to adopt an even more lightweight model.
 
We could look at alternatives to the Linux Foundation, but a) we've been 
talking to the LF for over a year now, and b) the preponderance of 
networking projects in LF, like ODL, FD.io, and OVS, makes it a natural 
destination for DPDK.
 
As highlighted in previous discussions on this topic, it's important to 
stress that the intent is not to make significant changes to the technical 
governance and decision making of the project. The project has a strong 
set of maintainers and a Technical Board in place already. What's required 
is to supplement that with an open governance structure taking advantage 
of the services offered by the Linux Foundation.
 
The purpose of this email is to outline what we want to achieve during 
that discussion session in Dublin, and to allow people to consider the 
issue and prepare in advance. If people want to comment via email on the 
mailing list, that's obviously fine, but we believe that an open and frank 
discussion when people meet in person in Dublin is the best way to 
progress this.
 
 
For reference, below is a brief history of the previous discussions on 
this topic:
 
September 2015:
- A DPDK community call was held to discuss project growth and possible 
improvements. This was the first public discussion on possible governance 
changes. The agreed next step was to discuss this in more detail at the 
2015 DPDK Summit Userspace event Dublin. Minutes of the call are at: 
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-September/024120.html.
 
October 2015:
- An open discussion session on project governance was held at the 2015 
DPDK Summit Userspace event. For technical governance, we agreed to 
investigate creating a technical steering committee. For non-technical 
governance (including things like event planning, legal and trademark 
issues, hosting of the website etc.), we agreed to work with the Linux 
Foundation on a proposal for a lightweight governance model for DPDK. 
Minutes of the discussion are at: 
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-October/024825.html.
 
- The proposal for a technical steering committee was subsequently 
discussed on the mailing list (
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-October/026598.html) and agreed, 
leading to the creation of the DPDK Technical Board (
http://dpdk.org/dev#board).
 
December 2015:
- A community call was held to discuss migration to the Linux Foundation. 
Mike Dolan (VP of Strategic Programs at The Linux Foundation) gave an 
overview of the LF and the services they can provide. We agreed to form a 
small sub-team (Dave Neary, Thomas Monjalon, Stephen Hemminger, Tim 
O'Driscoll) to work with the LF on a more detailed proposal. Minutes of 
the call are at: http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-December/030532.html
.
 
February 2016:
- A community call was held to discuss the LF budget proposal (see 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-3686Xb_jf4FtxdX8Mus9UwIxUb2vI_ppmJV5GnXcLg/edit#gid=302618256
). We agreed to discuss this further on the dev mailing list due to 
limited attendance on the call. Minutes of the call are at: 
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/032720.html.
 
- A request was made on the dev and announce mailing lists too determine 
who supported the proposal to move to the Linux Foundation (
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033192.html). There was 
public support from Intel (
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033297.html) and Brocade (
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033359.html). 6WIND 
requested postponing the move for a few months (
http://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2016-February/033299.html).
 
- The Fast Data (FD.io) project was established under the Linux Foundation 
(
https://fd.io/news/announcement/2016/02/linux-foundation-forms-open-source-effort-advance-io-services
).
 
June 2016:
- The Open vSwitch project proposed moving to the Linux Foundation (
http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/discuss/2016-June/021761.html).
 
August 2016:
- The Open vSwitch project moved to the Linux Foundation (
https://www.linuxfoundation.org/announcements/open-vswitch-joins-linux-foundation-open-networking-ecosystem
).