Open Source Networking

Hi all,

Recently I've started exploring the world of open networking. I couldn't find any documentation on the following questions, so please forgive me if they're too obvious as I'm only making my first steps in this area...

1) I've read that the main advantage BIRD has over other BGP daemons is scalability. Are you aware of any published/publicly accessible benchmarks?

2) Does the network operating system (NOS) really matter, given that I run all routing/switching daemons separately? Does ONL, for example, have any advantages over Ubuntu, RHEL, or OpenSwitch?

3) As far as my exploration went into routing stacks, it seems that there is a variety of solutions - as long as you're using BGP only. The moment you start talking about more advanced features such as EVPN, advanced STP agents, MPLS, etc. your only option is FRR (or stitching a few other solutions). Is there any other solution that gives FRR a fare fight in all areas, or should I just focus on BGP mainly which will enrich my options list?

4) MCLAG (comparable to Cisco's vPC) - are you aware of any open source implementation? From what I saw on the internet, open source networking seems to be more concentrated around IP fabrics and therefore uses ECMP and not MCLAG for load sharing.

5) ONIE vs PXE - is there a good reason to use ONIE? If the whole point is to treat switches as servers, why not use a unified installation platform?

And finally - do you have any customer testimony/documentation/blog entries of people who have converted datacenters, WAN infrastructure or even LAN into open source?

Cheers.