PlugFest Encouraged SDN Interoperability and Adoption Through Testing of OpenFlow® v1.3
PALO ALTO, Calif., June 2, 2014 – The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the adoption of open Software-Defined Networking (SDN), has completed its fifth semi-annual PlugFest. The event took place May 12 – 16, co-located at two of ONF’s global testing facilities the Beijing Internet Institute (BII) in Beijing, China and the Indiana Center for Network Translational Research and Education (InCNTRE) at Indiana University. The goal of the PlugFest is to provide end users with interoperable products and encourage the implementation of open SDN and the OpenFlow® protocol.
“This PlugFest marked an important milestone for OpenFlow® v1.3, as it was the third time this version had been tested which featured more maturity and advanced features on products from multiple vendors,” said Michael Haugh, product marketing director at Ixia and chair of the Open Networking Foundation Testing and Interoperability Working Group. “The ability to test products on OpenFlow® v1.3 provides the framework for carrier-grade SDN and promotes the growth and adoption we continue to see in the OpenFlow® protocol."
This event is the first time an ONF PlugFest has been held outside of the United States. It is also the first time that the event has been simultaneously held in multiple locations. The PlugFest was planned and managed by ONF’s Testing and Interoperability Working Group, which is dedicated to driving certification, interoperability, and benchmarking of the OpenFlow® protocol. The event provided participating companies the opportunity to test for interoperability and enhance implementations of OpenFlow® v1.3 in commercial and test controllers and switches.
OpenFlow® v1.3 includes capabilities that are finely tuned for commercial and enterprise networks, such as quality-of-service, Q-in-Q VLAN tunneling, group tables, active-standby controller, and IPv6.
“PlugFests provide a great opportunity for ONF to drive interoperability, deployment, and commercialization of OpenFlow-based SDN,” said Rick Bauer, technical program manager of the Open Networking Foundation. “With this being our first global PlugFest, the wide spectrum of participating member companies was a testament to SDN’s growing international footprint."
The ONF OpenFlow® Conformance Testing Program was launched in July 2013 and provides networking vendors with the opportunity to demonstrate compliance with the OpenFlow® specification. Nearly a year later, ONF has four tesing labs approved to conduct OpenFlow® conformance testing.
“PlugFests are an exciting and important step in the development of a robust conformance and interoperability test program, as they allow test labs and test tool developers to get early exposure to a wide range of vendor products and help ensure confidence in OpenFlow,” said Ron Milford, director of InCNTRE. “This was the first time OpenFlow® devices were tested with devices halfway around the world, and InCNTRE staff worked late nights to allow cooperative testing with the BII lab in China. Testing was a great success, and we look forward to hosting future global PlugFests."
“This marks the first time that BII was able to host an ONF PlugFest and we were delighted to see the concentration of companies who participated, particularly in the carrier industry,” said Li Zhen, technical director at BII. “The early morning connection to InCNTRE was exciting, and we are already exploring ways to continue these long-haul testing and validation experiments within ONF PlugFests in the future.”
Attendees of the PlugFest included approximately 50 representatives from 18 participating ONF member companies, including Brocade, Centec Networks, Digital China Networks, Ltd., Freescale, GreeNet, H3C, HP, IBM, Infoblox, Ixia (Net Optics), Luxoft, NEC, Netronome, NoviFlow, Pica8, Spirent, xNet, and ZTE.
More information about this, past, and future ONF PlugFest events can be found on the ONF website.
About ONF
Launched in 2011 by Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, and Yahoo!, the Open Networking Foundation (ONF) is a growing nonprofit organization with more than 140 members whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of open SDN. ONF promotes open SDN and OpenFlow® technologies and standards while fostering a vibrant market of products, services, applications, customers, and users. For further details visit the ONF website at: https://opennetworking.org.
