Attendees Tested Open SDN Applications Created by ONF's Open Source SDN Community
SAN JOSE, Calif., May 26, 2015 – The Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating the adoption of open Software-Defined Networking (SDN), has concluded the first industry AppFest to encourage the development, testing, and implementation of open SDN applications running on an open SDN Infrastructure. Vendors attending the AppFest had the opportunity to test new controllers and switches as well as OpenFlow® v1.3. The AppFest took place May 18 – 22 at Ericsson’s Silicon Valley campus in San Jose, California.
The focus of the event moved from individual switch testing to a more complex, multi-vendor, test bed in order to verify application interoperability. There were three major tracks at the AppFest:
- Interoperability: This time the AppFest was broadened to include several applications, running on various controllers, interacting with an OpenFlow® 1.3 multi-vendor switch test bed. In addition to ONF members, the AppFest also included representatives from major open source controllers and their related application partners.
- Conformance: With the ONF OpenFlow® 1.3 Conformance Program nearing completion, several test frameworks were available to evaluate switch functionality and verify conformance results across various frameworks.
- Benchmarking: With the development of both controller and switch benchmarking specifications, vendors were able to run benchmarking tests to validate not only the benchmarking methodologies, but to present preliminary performance results to participating vendors.
“The AppFest offered a centralized location for those in the industry to come together and test not just the latest OpenFlow® products, but we expanded to include application validation as well,” 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 in this environment completes the connection between products and customers. We’re validating the entire stack here—application, controller, and multi-vendor/multi-node switches—collapsing what would take individuals months to achieve.”
The AppFest also provided attendees with the opportunity to gain familiarity with and open source projects sponsored by ONF and OpenSourceSDN.org, ONF’s recently launched open source software community and code repository. Briefing and technical sessions introduced the following projects from OpenSourceSDN.org:
- Aspen – An open source project that provides code for a real-time media Northbound Interface (NBI). This set of code allows companies to run over-the-top (OTT) applications with SDN, monitoring increasing the Quality of Service (QoS) of Internet-based communications.
- Durango – This project builds upon the OpenFlow® Configuration and Management Protocol (OF-CONFIG) to support Open vSwitch (OVS). The OF-CONFIG Working Group worked together with the Czech Education and Scientific NETwork (CESNET) to develop software that allows programs within the OpenFlow® ecosystem to work seamlessly with OVS.
- Boulder – The ONF NBI Working Group has developed this project to specify the architecture and initial information model for an intent-based interface to the SDN controller. The first release of this project is built on OpenDaylight controllers with additional SDN controller platform integrations coming soon.
ONF AppFest 2015 was facilitated by ONF’s Testing and Interoperability Working Group. This group is dedicated to increasing interoperability, driving certification, and benchmarking the performance of open SDN infrastructure – in this case, based on the OpenFlow® protocol – as the open, vendor-neutral southbound standard. ONF’s AppFest was also supported by the Software Leadership Council, a group of industry luminaries who guide ONF’s open source software programs and online community development.
“Ericsson was proud to serve as host of the first industry AppFest,” said Bala Thekkedath, director of Product Marketing at Ericsson. “Applications are the consumer touch point for the technology and we are excited to see the beginnings of a healthy app ecosystem for SDN. We are committed to keeping the SDN ecosystem open and we look forward to continuing our relationship with ONF and participating in the further development of open source SDN projects.”
For more information about ONF events, please visit: https://opennetworking.org/news-and-events/events.
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.
