Open Disaggregated Network Component (ODNC): Network Sovereignty at the Subcomponent Level

Network sovereignty indicates how well a network can operate without dependencies on component manufacturers. Currently, hardware and software solution standards for Open Disaggregated Networks (ODNs) are being developed to break the vendor lock-in problem. Disaggregation also reduces dependencies on manufacturers and improves sovereignty. Current literature considers sovereignty only at a network component level. However, there could be components that share the same critical subcomponent, leading to a hidden singular dependency on that subcomponent manufacturer. Therefore, we question the granularity of sovereignty that must be considered to ensure a sovereign network. Our major contributions are to (i) introduce the concept of manufacturer trustworthiness (τ<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">m</inf>), (ii) explore the possibility of Open Disaggregated Network Components (ODNCs), and (iii) model and evaluate an Integer Linear Program (ILP) based on minimal cutsets (MCSs) to give guidelines to network operators on how to purchase components and subcomponents to maximize network sovereignty, such that the impact of manufacturer failures is minimized.