ONF move continues push in support of SDN platforms
The Open Networking Foundation unveiled a new OpenFlow testing specification and added to its list of authorized testing facilities designed to help support the deployment of software-defined networking technology.
ONF said the OpenFlow version 1.3 testing specification includes specific features designed to ensure the development of “richly functional SDN products and services,” and pushes mandatory inclusion of protocol components within products.
“This further ensures that companies are able to build OpenFlow-based products, including hardware switches, that implement an important set of OpenFlow features beyond those available in OpenFlow 1.0,” ONF stated.
Outside the updated standard, ONF also announced South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute is its latest authorized testing facility. The move increases the number of worldwide facilities to seven, including the Beijing Internet Institute and China Telecommunication Technology Labs in Beijing; Criterion Network Labs in Bangalore, India; Indiana Center for Network Translational Research and Education at Indiana University; Network Benchmarking Lab of National Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan; and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab at the University of New Hampshire.
ONF stated its Certificate of Conformance gained at one of these facilities provides assurance for vendors of interoperability between networking hardware, switches, routers and software.
“The OpenFlow Conformance Testing Program provides checks and balances to ensure vendors’ products are OpenFlow compliant and increases interoperability with other network architecture components,” said Erica Johnson, director of the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab and chair of ONF’s Testing Leadership Council. “Vendors that certify their OpenFlow products are able to show end users their long-term commitment to the protocol standard within their product lines and their commitment for the future of networking. We are encouraged by the commitment many companies have made to the OpenFlow protocol and look forward to accelerating the adoption of open SDN.”
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