In the past few years, there has been significant interest in using open platforms for building communication devices. Linux and open source platforms are being used in various devices on the network - end systems such as mobile phones and client devices, and access and edge routers for forwarding data packets and server platforms.

There are several advantages to using open platforms to build communications devices: flexibility and scalability, standard interfaces, and leveraging the open source community. This article discusses the building of routers using open software platforms and components via leveraging these advantages.

Open Platforms for Communications

Simply put, a platform is a base on which applications can be built. It allows extensibility in that you can provide new applications to be added to existing applications for the specific environment targeted. Open source platforms such as Linux are strong candidates for communication platforms for various reasons:

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