Open Networking Foundation Updates its SDN Spec

The Open Networking Foundation (ONF) completed the first update to its specifications for OpenFlow Software Defined Networking (SDN) since its launch in March 2011.
Software Defined Networking using the OpenFlow standard addresses the challenges faced by service providers, data-center operators, and enterprises in aligning the network with an increasingly dynamic and customized computing infrastructure. OpenFlow defines a communication protocol between a logically centralized control plane and the network’s data delivery plane, together with a standardized network management interface potentially allowing, for example, a data-center network to be made as flexible and responsive as the virtual servers that it supports.


OpenFlow Switch Specification Version 1.2 builds on Stanford University’s Version 1.1 in a number of ways, including:


Support for IPv6. In addition to the previous support for IPv4, MPLS, and L2 headers, OpenFlow 1.2 now supports matching on IPv6 source address, destination address, protocol number, traffic class, ICMPv6 type, ICMPv6 code, IPv6 neighbor discovery header fields, and IPv6 flow labels.


Support for extensible matches, addressing a larger number of parameters and providing far greater flexibility for current and future protocols.


Support for experimenter extensions through dedicated fields and code points assigned by ONF, facilitating experimentation and fine-tuning by a growing population of developers across academia and industry.


Membership in ONF has now passed the 50 mark. NTT Communications will join the ONF Board of Directors.


“NTT strongly supports the ONF’s goals and has deeply engaged technical experts actively contributing to ONF working groups, underlining NTT’s strong commitment to developing and deploying the OpenFlow standard.�?
"ONF continues to grow globally, with Korea Telecom and Spirent Communications our latest members�? says Dan Pitt, ONF’s Executive Director. “There is a shared vision of OpenFlow as the vital foundation upon which a dynamic, policy-based orchestration layer is being created – allowing processes to be defined on the fly and deployed automatically to deliver agile, scalable cloud services to a satisfy a wide range of user needs in every geography." http://www.opennetworking.org