The testing specification for OpenFlow v1.3 is here. Learn what this version brings to the SDN ecosystem.
OpenFlow® is a big topic of discussion in the industry lately. Perhaps you saw some of our recent blog posts about it; in case you missed them, you can read my thoughts on OpenFlow here: “OpenFlow: Actually on the Ascent” and “The Case for OpenFlow.” We love that people are talking about OpenFlow, because let’s face it: we love talking about it too! Especially when we have a new testing specification available.
That’s right! The OpenFlow v1.3 testing specification is out and available for both members and non-members. OpenFlow v1.3 includes features critical to the development of richly functional SDN products and services, and this latest conformance specification allows companies to leverage a standard that ensures the mandatory components of the protocol are included within products. This further ensures that companies are able to build OpenFlow-based products, including hardware switches, that are certified to implement an important set of OpenFlow features beyond those available in OpenFlow v1.0. OpenFlow v1.3 builds off of OpenFlow v1.0 certification that is already available today.
Like many of our member companies, we feel that OpenFlow is a vital component to SDN’s acceleration and deployment worldwide, and it is increasingly being demanded by network operators. OpenFlow plays a key role in SDN as an architecture, a model, and an interface. Operators are also demanding interoperability and conformance to the standard, and this specification helps achieve exactly that.
In 2011, we created a Testing and Interoperability Working Group that has been hard at work making sure our conformance testing program is top notch. An ONF Certificate of Conformance is the highest level of assurance available in the market today and validates conformance to a particular version of the OpenFlow specification. Wouldn’t you want your products to meet the highest standards?
Vendors – both ONF member companies and those not affiliated with ONF – can earn an ONF Certificate of Conformance for networking hardware, including switches and routers, as well as network software by testing their solution at an accredited ONF testing lab. Organizations interested in certifying their products for OpenFlow v1.3 conformance can do so at any of our seven accredited global testing facilities. A complete listing of those facilities can be found here.
We’re excited to see OpenFlow v1.3 conformant products come to the market in the near future. Share with us in the comments section if your organization is planning on testing products for OpenFlow conformance.
- Michael Haugh, Product Marketing Director at Ixia and Chair of the Open Networking Foundation Testing and Interoperability Working Group
