Cisco outlined its vision for the Open Network Environment (ONE), promising multilayered "full-duplex" programmability across network hardware platforms and its operating systems based on application dynamics. The goal is to enable flexible, application-driven customization of network infrastructures through a rich set of platform APIs, agents and controllers, and overlay network technologies.
"The Cisco Open Network Environment is key to our vision of an intelligent network that is more open, programmable, and application-aware— a vision in which the network is transformed into a more effective business enabler," said Padmasree Warrior, Cisco chief technical officer, senior vice president of Engineering, and general manager of Enterprise Business. "With Cisco's Open Network Environment, customers get a comprehensive and robust set of capabilities to address emerging enterprise and service provider requirements to harness network intelligence and provide value for new business platforms in an evolutionary manner."
The ONE framework consists of three fundamental technology components: Platform Interfaces, Agents and Controllers , and Virtual Overlays. Initial deliverables of the Cisco Open Network Environment include:
- a developer kit with platform APIs across Cisco IOS, IOS-XR, and NX-OS Software
- Proof-of-concept controllers and SDN/OpenFlow agents allowing academic research partners to universities to partition or "slice" their campus network to enable academic research on SDN with consistent policy management.
- Overlay network solutions that include the Cisco Nexus 1000V for scalable, multitenant cloud deployments.
Cisco said its open programmability architecture complements current approaches to software-defined networking while encompassing the entire solution stack from transport to management and orchestration. The new virtual overlay networks capability for multi-tenant cloud deployments with the Cisco Nexus 1000V virtual switch will feature OpenStack support, programmability, multi-hypervisor capability, and VXLAN gateway functionality. The company will also provide proof-of-concept OpenFlow v1.0 agents on the Cisco Catalyst 3750-X and 3560-X Series Switches.
Beta trials and phased general availability are scheduled to begin the last quarter of 2012. http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/trends/open_network_environment/index.html
