Internet2 Deploys ONOS to Provision Virtual Nets

Internet2 has deployed the Open source SDN Network Operating System (ONOS) on its nationwide research and education (R&E) network.

Five higher education institutions — Duke University, Florida International University, the Indiana GigaPoP, MAX and the University of Maryland – College Park, and the University of Utah — are connected to a virtual slice of the Internet2 nation-wide network that is piloting this next-generation advanced network technology.

Internet2 said it is using the capabilities of its SDN substrate to provision virtual networks based on FlowSpace Firewall. An ONOS cluster is deployed in a virtual network slice on the Internet2 network, controlling 38 OpenFlow-enabled Brocade and Juniper switches. The SDN-IP Peering application deployed atop ONOS peers with other, traditional networks. An SDN-based network like Internet2 provides benefits such as network programmability, lower TCO and removal of vendor lock-in. In this particular case, the centralized control plane leads to significant improvements in network operation efficiency for the Internet2 network.

“We worked closely together in a lab environment to prepare ONOS for production deployment on the Internet2 Network, providing many valuable insights on production deployment of SDN-controlled virtual networks in a multi-tenant environment,” said Luke Fowler, director of software and systems for the GlobalNOC.

“A primary feature of the Internet2 Network is its ability to serve as a ‘playground’ for piloting new advanced networking capabilities in a real-world environment with demanding users and advanced applications capabilities,” said Vietzke. “The ONOS and SDN-IP peering deployment is another demonstration of how Internet2 and the academic community continue to be a large scale platform in which pre-market innovations can be prototyped at scale.”

"ON.Lab, the ONOS Project and Internet2 have a very synergistic collaboration. At ON.Lab we develop interesting open source SDN platforms and Internet2 is a keen early adopter bringing new capabilities to its customers,” said Bill Snow, vice president of Engineering for ON.Lab. “With the deployment of ONOS on Internet2’s nationwide network, we get to validate and demonstrate ONOS’s scalability, performance and high availability in a production setting and learn from this experience to make ONOS better.”

http://www.internet2.edu/news/detail/8664/