Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Metaswitch positions Composable Network Protocols for disaggregated networking

Metaswitch introduced a portfolio of Composable Network Protocols (CNP) for powering next-generation white box routing platforms with fully-decoupled control plane components and open management interfaces.

The suite of Composable Network Protocols is based on Metaswitch's more than 35 years of protocol development. Its proven and stable IP routing and MPLS networking stacks and layer 2 and 3 protocols are deployed in the products of more than 250 network OEMs, which the company says distinguishes its code from open source alternatives, enabling true software disaggregation while lowering capex, opex and operational risks. Metaswitch's CNP routing and control plane protocols install and operate as binary applications on top of any open network operating system, running stand-alone or combined with any third-party commercial or open source stack.

“Our new white box and open network operating system solution introduces groundbreaking capabilities and flexible purchasing options, while reducing the risk of moving to a fully-disaggregated architecture,” said Martin Lund, CEO of Metaswitch. “Metaswitch has a very strong track record in the development and deployment of hardened protocol stacks for the most demanding applications and OEMs and we look forward to working with an expanded range of customers to help them realize the future of composable networking.”

In addition, Dell EMC has agreed to resell Metaswitch Composable Network Protocols (CNP). Specifically, Dell EMC will combine Metaswitch’s CNP IP routing and MPLS networking stacks with its own EMC OS10 Open Edition on ONIE-enabled platforms. The companies said this joint solution embodies the evolution of networking software as it introduces new levels of software flexibility and programmability in large-scale data center environments for cloud and communications services providers (CSPs).

“The combination of Metaswitch CNP and Dell EMC OS10 Open Edition significantly raises the viability of software disaggregation in production deployments,” said Drew Schulke, VP of networking at Dell EMC. “With this comprehensive portfolio of hardened network protocol stacks, we’ll work closely on addressing the complexities of data center interconnect and wide-area IP/MPLS routing at scale. We’re pleased to be working closely with Metaswitch with its long and successful track record of development and deployment of protocol stacks.”