To adapt the network disaggregation concept, big players like Microsoft, Facebook, Dell, Intel, Broadcom, Mellanox, Marvell, Cavium etc. have muscled up to tackle the problem of the traditional network stack. They have formed the Open Compute Project (OCP) group and introduced the standard abstraction of the network switch. The standard interface is called SAI – Switch Abstraction Interface. When we say network stack it means NOS which includes the switching silicon’s software kit, platform-specific drivers, and management plane. In order to bring up the switch, it needs to put all software pieces together to form a complete NOS.
The silicon vendor provided SDK needs to be integrated with the NOS. Now for the smooth and easy integration, vendors provide standard interfaces to access its silicon. The standard interface is well accepted and widely used by the various open sourced NOS. Since it is standard, the developer should only need to know the standard APIs which is vendor neutral.