Facebook Open Sources Its Network Routing Platform Open/R (techcrunch.com)

Facebook will open source its modular network routing software Open/R, currently used in its backbone and data center networks, which "provides a platform to disseminate state across the network and allows new applications to be built on top of it." An anonymous reader quotes TechCrunch: Facebook obviously has unique scale needs when it comes to running a network. It has billions of users doing real-time messaging and streaming content at a constant clip. As with so many things, Facebook found that running the network traffic using traditional protocols had its limits and it needed a new way to route traffic that didn't rely on the protocols of the past, Omar Baldonado, Engineering Director at Facebook explained... While it was originally developed for Facebook's Terragraph wireless backhaul network, the company soon recognized it could work on other networks too including the Facebook network backbone, and even in the middle of Facebook network, he said. Given the company's extreme traffic requirements where the conditions were changing so rapidly and was at such scale, they needed a new way to route traffic on the network. "We wanted to find per application, the best path, taking into account dynamic traffic conditions throughout the network," Baldonado said.

But Facebook also recognized that it could only take this so far internally, and if they could work with partners and other network operators and hardware manufacturers, they could extend the capabilities of this tool. They are in fact working with other companies in this endeavor including Juniper and Arista networks, but by open sourcing the software, it allows developers to do things with it that Facebook might not have considered, and their engineering team finds that prospect both exciting and valuable.
"Most protocols were initially designed based on constrained hardware and software environment assumptions from decades ago," Facebook said in its announcement. "To continue delivering rich, real-time, and highly engaging user experiences over networks, it's important to accelerate innovation in the routing domain."

Comments

True, was true of Myspace

[raymorris]

> Facebook's value is the number of people signed up to it.

True

> Facebook will remain dominant simply by having the users to create enough content to be interesting. No upstart can beat that ...

Myspace was THE social networking site. Then Facebook challenged Myspace, then beat them. Network effects are.powerful, but not insurmountable.

One of the the more likely scenarios for something else to beat out Facebook is if they start in a very specific niche, such as DoctorNet, or CopBook . The service would be tailored to doctors, but could offer all the same features as Facebook. Once DoctorNet is strong among doctors, they'd add NurseNet, then RxNet, etc, growing their own network effects within a specific community and extending outward until they could challenge Facebook in general. Language specific networks could be another avenue. If a company had a strong presence in German, and Dutch, perhaps, they could add languages and cultures, then carefully interweave the different networks to create a super-network that retains specific communities as parts. Certain companies who run thousands of interest-specific web forums might be able o pull this off.