Tuesday, February 4, 2014

OpenDayLight: Open Collaboration on SDN





Neela Jacques, Executive Director of OpenDaylight, discusses collaboration with the Open Networking Foundation, ETSI and others in developing solutions for software defined networks.

OpenDaylight Project Delivers Hydrogen Sourcecode for SDN

The OpenDaylight Project officially released its "Hydrogen" software for enabling software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV).  The Hydrogen release contains over a million lines of code, with contributions from 154 people.

Three versions of Hydrogen are available:
Base Edition
  • Controller: A modular, extensible, scalable and multi-protocol SDN controller based on OSGi.
  • OpenFlow Plugin: Integration of OpenFlow protocol library in controller Service Abstraction Layer (SAL).
  • OpenFlow Protocol Library: OpenFlow 1.3 protocol library implementation.
  • OVSDB: Open vSwitch Database configuration and management protocol support, e.g. for Open vSwitch and other OVSDB servers.
  • YANG Tools: Java-based NETCONF and YANG tooling for OpenDaylight projects.
Virtualization Edition (includes Base Edition)
  • Affinity Metadata Service: APIs to express workload relationships and service levels.
  • Defense4All: DDoS detection and mitigation framework.
  • Open DOVE: Multi-tenant network virtualization based on overlays, including control plane and Open vSwitch-based data plane.
  • Virtual Tenant Network: Multi-tenant network virtualization application using OpenFlow.
Service Provider Edition (includes Base Edition)
  • Affinity Metadata Service: APIs to express workload relationships and service levels.
  • BGP-LS/PCEP: Support for traffic engineering with BGP-LS (BGP protocol library and topology model) and PCEP (path programming model).
  • Defense4All: DDoS detection and mitigation framework.
  • LISP Flow Mapping: Locator/identifier Separation Protocol plugin, LISP mapping service (can be used to implement virtual networks).
  • SNMP4SDN: SNMP protocol support and APIs to manage commodity Ethernet switches.
“We are seeing new OpenDaylight implementations and solutions coming to the forefront every day,” said Neela Jacques, executive director, OpenDaylight. “All signs point to 2014 being a key year for the project as we continue to grow the community, build the architecture and engage with organizations and end users who want to accelerate the path to SDN and NFV.”

“OpenDaylight formed with the goal of tackling one of IT’s toughest challenges: simplifying network management,” said David Meyer, Technical Steering Committee chair, OpenDaylight. “This first release is a great step forward and the community is already looking to build on its work to address a variety of additional capabilities and features in subsequent releases that are being discussed at the first OpenDaylight Summit this week.”

NEC Contributes Network Virtualization to OpenDaylight Hydrogen

NEC has contributed its Virtual Tenant Network (VTN) source code to the OpenDaylight Project's “Hydrogen” release, which was revealed at the first annual OpenDaylight Summit in Santa Clara.

The VTN, introduced by NEC at the July 2013 HackFest, consists of a set of technology components that provide a multi-tenant virtual network through the OpenDaylight controller.

The VTN provides an abstraction that enables the complete separation of the network’s logical plane from its physical plane. Applications can program the network using Northbound APIs. Once the network has been defined using VTN, it will automatically be mapped to the physical network through the controller.

NEC said the benefits of the VTN include:

  • More efficient management of the network resources
  • Reduced time to configure network services
  • Minimized network configuration errors

“The VTN is a core technology of NEC’s ProgrammbleFlow® Network Fabric, and has been deployed globally by carrier and enterprise customers for their production networks,” said Don Clark, director of business development for NEC Corporation of America. “The VTN network design enables deployment of logical networks on top of any underlying physical network topology, reducing complexity of traditional network design and increasing service agility. We’re pleased to be part of the Hydrogen release.”

http://www.necam.com/sdn



IBM Debuts OpenDayLight Unified Network Controller

IBM introduced a new unified network controller based on OpenDaylight technology.

The new IBM Software Defined Network for Virtual Environments (SDN VE), which is built using open source components and interfaces, can automate and speed up the process of setting up such networks. It also includes support for OpenStack, which enables organizations to integrate their SDNs into private and public clouds. The SDN VE consists of the unified controller, virtual switches for creating overlays, gateways to non-SDN environments and open interfaces for application integration.


IBM said its unified controller was designed for both VMware and Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) virtualization environments. It also supports the Open Networking Foundation’s OpenFlow standard. The goal is to enable network administrators to achieve greater enterprise performance, scalability and security, and address ever-changing business needs by speeding up network provisioning from days to hours.

“Our goal is to take advantage of the openness of the OpenDaylight platform and deliver that advantage to clients by collaborating with other developers to establish an ecosystem of interoperable network applications and services,” said Dr. Inder Gopal, IBM vice president of System Networking Development. “The cooperation needed to realize the benefits of SDN is only possible within an open framework, and IBM is pleased to provide a holistic solution for new and existing networks.”

With the OpenDaylight Project, IBM is working closely with its partners, such as A10 Networks, ADVA Optical Networking, Brocade, Citrix, F5, Juniper Networks, Palo Alto Networks, Plexxi, Radware, SilverPeak, vArmour, VSS Monitoring and others to enable scalable networking applications that include load balancing, firewall, intrusion detection, routing and other services.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/43082.wss



Ericsson Launches OpenDaylight Lab

Ericsson announced an OpenDaylight Lab aimed at helping SDN developers to integrate, test and verify their applications in an OpenDaylight ecosystem. The lab at Ericsson's campus in San Jose, California, will accelerate the availability of SDN applications from developers.

The lab will provide an OpenDaylight network environment open to all SDN developers based on an agreed schedule.

"Network programmability and interoperability are two key goals of the OpenDaylight Project," said Neela Jacques, Executive Director, OpenDaylight. "It is great to see Ericsson devoting significant resources to support the integration and testing of SDN and NFV innovations and applications coming out of the community."

Ericsson is a founding Platinum sponsor of the OpenDaylight Project, and is collaborating with other project members to develop the OpenDaylight SDN and NFV platform including the first open source software release named Hydrogen. Ericsson will run the new lab in collaboration with the OpenDaylight Project.

http://www.opendaylight.org
http://www.ericsson.com

Google and Cisco Sign Patent Cross-Licensing Deal

Cisco and Google announced a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement covering a broad range of products and technologies.

"Our agreement with Cisco will reduce the potential for litigation, letting us focus instead on building great new products," said Allen Lo, Google's Deputy General Counsel for Patents. "We're pleased to enter into this cross-license, and we welcome discussions with any company interested in a similar arrangement."

"In today's overly-litigious environment, cross-licensing is an effective way for technology companies to work together and help prevent unnecessary patent lawsuits," said Dan Lang, Cisco's Vice President of Intellectual Property. "This agreement is an important step in promoting innovation and assuring freedom of operation."

Both Cisco and Google are members of the Coalition for Patent Fairness, a leading advocacy group for patent reform.

http://thenetwork.cisco.com
http://www.google.com

Mellanox Releases Ethernet Switch API

Mellanox Technologies released its Ethernet Switch Software Development Kit (SDK) Application Programming Interface (API) with full Layer 2 and Layer 3 functionality as an Open Source software platform. The Open SDK API code and documentation can be downloaded for free.


Mellanox describes its release of the API as a continued step in the Open Ethernet initiative and works in conjunction with Open Compute Project (OCP). The Open SDK API enables the Ethernet community to build open source networking applications and protocols faster and can be a base for a standard Ethernet switch interface.

“By opening the SDK API, we provide our customers with an open interface for integration of their applications and the freedom to optimize the Ethernet switch hardware platforms to their needs,” said Gilad Shainer, vice president of marketing at Mellanox Technologies. “We encourage other vendors to join the growing community of the Open Ethernet initiative and to agree on a common, standard API for all switches, and for application developers to write network stacks on top of Ethernet switch ICs.”

http://www.mellanox.com
http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=124&mtag=switchx_sdk

AT&T Names Chief Medical Advisor to Support Health IT Initiative

AT&T has appointed Dr. Eric Topol as its Chief Medical Advisor to oversee the design, development and delivery of AT&T's healthcare IT solutions.

Dr. Topol is a premier cardiologist, geneticist and researcher, and will continue in his position as the Chief Academic Officer at Scripps Health. He is author of the best-selling book The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care and editor-in-chief of Medscape. He is also the founder of Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Dr. Topol has been involved with the evolution of wireless medicine since its emergence.

"With connected devices, the flow of health and medical information is going through a radical change, which puts patients in an exceptionally powerful and important position. I'm honored to work with AT&T as we seek to develop new solutions that will change the trajectory of digital health and impact patient outcomes," Dr. Topol said.

http://www.att.com

Verizon Wireless Customers Chewed Through 1.9TB in Stadium at Super Bowl

Verizon Wireless customers generated an unprecedented 1.9 TB of data usage over the company's wireless network during Super Bowl XLVIII.

During the game, Verizon Wireless said it handled more than 800 percent more data connections than during the busiest hour at last year's Super Bowl in New Orleans. In fact, during the halftime show with Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Verizon Wireless customers shattered records, using more data in MetLife stadium during a single hour than at any previous Super Bowl. 
"Our network got the trophy last night and during Super Bowl week, delivering the consistent, reliable performance at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey and throughout the New York metropolitan area that our customers have come to expect from Verizon Wireless," said Nicola Palmer, chief technology officer of Verizon Wireless.

Prior to the game, the company upgraded its Distributed Antenna System (DAS) inside MetLife Stadium to quadruple 4G LTE data capacity and added additional cell sites outside to enhance customers' game-time experiences.

http://www.verizonwireless.com 

Procera Networks Introduces Service Plan Assurance

Procera Networks announced "Service Plan Assurance," enabling fixed and mobile operators to provide individual subscribers with real-time and historical score cards detailing application performance and traffic management impact.

This solution demonstrates to subscribers that they are getting the performance and quality of experience that the network operators are promising, making any network management policies enforced in the network transparent to end users. It uses Procera's PacketLogic solutions, which are able to ensure that the correct level of service is being delivered to the customer, as well as measure the impact of network congestion on the customer's end user experience. The operators' customer service team can also see a real-time and historical view of exactly what quality of service that user has been delivered, regardless of their location or the devices that they are operating.


"Service providers want to make a commitment to their subscribers that they will get the value they are expecting from their service plan choices," said James Brear, President and CEO of Procera Networks. "Procera's technology has always designed fairness and transparency into its PacketLogic™ traffic management products so that service providers implementing network management policies can readily understand the impact these algorithms have on their customers. By introducing our Service Plan Assurance solution we believe that our philosophy of fairness can be easily implemented and demonstrated to subscribers."

http://www.proceranetworks.com

Brocade Hires Tom Nadeau from Juniper

Brocade announced the appointment of Tom Nadeau to the position of Distinguished Engineer.


Previously, Nadeau served as a Distinguished Engineer at Juniper, where he was heavily involved in the company's SDN and NFV efforts. He has held similar roles at CA Technologies, Cisco and others.

Brocade said Nadeau will play a key role in advancing the company's open source SDN and NFV strategy and involvement, specifically related to the OpenDaylight Project and OpenStack initiatives.

"The pace at which SDN has transformed the industry is astounding, but community-oriented open source projects have the potential to further accelerate customer adoption by producing multivendor-supported solutions," said Nadeau. "Brocade's involvement in projects such as OpenDaylight demonstrates its understanding of the evolving data center and the solutions customers need to be successful."

http://www.brocade.com

Range Networks Expands its Executive Team

Range Networks, a start-up developing open source cellular systems, followed-up on its recent appointment of Ed Kozel as CEO, with the announcement of further members of its team:

  • Pedro Rump, vice president of engineering – Rump began his 30-year career at ROLM Corporation and has served as VP of engineering at four early stage cellular equipment and IP telephony companies, most recently as senior vice president of engineering and operations at ShoreTel.
  • Bob Fultz, vice president of products – A former VP of engineering at Aeris Communications and VP of strategic partnerships at GoBeam from its start through acquisition by Covad Communications,
  • Bobbi Frioli, vice president of sales – previously served as VP of sales or strategic alliances at five prior companies, four of which were successfully acquired. Most recently, she was vice president of global sales at Xora.
  • John Callon, director of marketing & business development – played a key role in the global service launch at mobile carrier Globalstar and subsequently founded CloudMeeting. Callon most recently worked at QMC Telecom, a Brazilian mobile infrastructure start-up.


Range Networks, which was founded by the creators of OpenBTS, uses open source software to present ordinary cellular handsets as SIP endpoints in a VoIP system. All are designed to work as a single-site network or as part of a multi-site network. The company already has a number or deployments around the world – including Indonesia, Zambia and Antarctica.

http://www.rangenetworks.com