Open source whitebox router

We provide baseboxd, a transparent SDN control daemon that offloads Linux kernel forwarding and routing to hardware switches. baseboxd is open source. It closes the gap between well-established Linux open source routing projects, such as FRR, and whitebox switches.

Basebox is available via https://github.com/bisdn/basebox 

An ONIE image is available via our Download form.

It’s SDN without the difficult part. No need to program any interfaces, just configure the entire router like a Linux box.

Let hardware acceleration do the rest – it centuplicates the router performance.

You only buy the hardware and download the rest. If you like, we will support you – just get in touch to learn about our support schemes!

Our open source router comes in an off-switch and an on-switch flavor. In addition, we offer Basebox Fabric, a commercial turnkey solution with switches and software in high availability configuration.

 

Basebox on-switch

The on-switch version is lean, since it

  • feels like a “real” router
  • works out of the box
  • requires no initial configuration
  • is easy to maintain and
  • inexpensive, since it requires no additional devices

Basebox on-switch

Basebox off-switch

The off-switch version provides a native SDN solution with

  • less kernel dependencies
  • more space and
  • infinite compute power
  • it opens new options, such as route compression or telemetry

Basebox off-switch

 


Releases

BISDN Linux version 5.1

Basebox consists of baseboxd, an SDN controller, and BISDN Linux, a switch operating system.

baseboxd

Features:

  • L2 Learning switch
  • L3 Routing (IPv4 and IPv6)
    • BGP
    • OSPF
    • EIGRP
    • RIP
    • IS-IS
  • Virtual routing and forwarding (VRF)
  • Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), including RSTP and MSTP
  • Link aggregation (LAG) supported for modes ‘balance-rr’, ‘active-backup’ and ‘802.3ad’
  • 802.1q and 802.1ad bridging
  • IGMP/MLD Snooping
  • Switch statistics available via OpenFlow
  • gRPC interface to export switch statistics based on openconfig-interfaces
  • Support source-MAC learning
  • Support group modifications from OF-DPA3.0
  • Tested on yocto 4.0 (kirkstone) (on-switch)
  • VxLAN
  • Enabling and disabling ports based on their configuration in Linux

BISDN Linux

based on yocto 4.0 (kirkstone)

Features:

  • Choice of SDN controller (on switch or off switch) configurable 
  • On-switch routing daemon (FRR) to run with baseboxd
  • OF-DPA grpc endpoint and local command-line interface
  • Supports port and SFP inspection via onlpdump and client shell
  • OF-DPA 3.05 (including group modifications)
  • Port mirroring (ingress/egress)
  • Container support with docker-ce
  • Using the latest LTS Linux kernel release 6.1

 

Supported platforms and release notes:

Documentation

 


Community

Join the Basebox Community on Slack 

This page explains how to join and how to use the Basebox community on Slack. If you would like to join the Basebox Slack community, please self-register via the invitation link or request an invitation via slack@bisdn.de.

If you require commercial support and have purchased a commercial support plan, please use our Support platform.

First steps with Slack

The Basebox community is a group of developers that are using the open source operating system for whitebox switches. 

Once you have received your invitation and finished the signup process, you can use Slack via their web application or download a desktop or mobile client.

Slack channels

By default you will be added to the #general channel, which is the general-purpose discussion chat. Other more topic-specific channels can be selected in the channels menu.

Setting up your Slack profile 

Once you are registered for Slack, you may customize your profile through the Slack website. There you can set your name and select your avatar. 

Slack help

If you have any questions, please refer to the Help Center documentation. Within Slack, please use #general channel for support.

Mailing list 

Subscribe to the mailing list via https://lists.baseboxd.org/mailman/listinfo/basebox-announce.

 


Docs

Basebox is the BISDN controller package for data center networks with the following combinable elements:

  • The BISDN Linux Distribution is a Yocto-based operating system for selected whitebox switches
  • baseboxd is a controller daemon integrating whitebox switches into Linux
  • Standard Linux daemons like FRR or systemd-networkd allow easy network configuration

Basebox can either run directly on the switch or in a separate controller machine. The solution addresses issues of orchestration, flexibilization, high availability and further automation in various scenarios. 

Please find the installation guide, API definitions and additional resources here.


Support

Commercial support 

Get free community support in our Slack community, or a paid commercial support plan. 

If you have purchased a support contract with your Basebox instance, please use our Support platform

  • Our support team is available weekdays 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. CET
  • Next business day response
  • Developer-led support from the team that built Basebox 
  • Incident tracking with Freshdesk  

 

 


Contact

If you would like to visit us…

… our office is located in Berlin-Tiergarten, in close proximity to Potsdamer Platz:
Please find our offices at OpenStreetMap.

 

BISDN GmbH
Körnerstraße 7-10, Aufgang A
10785 Berlin, Germany

Geschäftsführung: Dr. Hagen Woesner, Andreas Köpsel
Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg, HRB 141569B
USt-ID DE283257294
D-U-N-S Nr. 342618395
Email: info<a>bisdn.de
Tel: +49 30 610 816 100

 

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