Meru garners ONF certification for SDN solution

Wi-Fi networking software provider Meru Networks said it was issued a conformance certificate from the Open Networking Foundation, citing Meru’s use of software-defined networking and OpenFlow to allow for third-party control out to the access point.
Meru said the certificate was the first awarded by ONF, which is a non-profit organization working on the adoption of open SDN, to a wireless local area network vendor through its OpenFlow Conformance Testing Program. The certificate signals that the technology “accurately implements a particular version of OpenFlow.”
“Meru’s SDN implementation is unique in using OpenFlow in our mobility controllers to enable third-party control all the way to the access point,” said Ajay Malik, SVP of engineering and quality assurance at Meru. “This approach gives customers the maximum benefits of SDN, allowing them to combine solutions from multiple vendors to address their specific needs.”
Meru noted that testing of its mobility controllers was conducted independently by Criterion Network Labs, which is one of four certified by ONF to conduct testing.
ONF earlier this year announced a partnership with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute to further the development of network function virtualization specifications. The organizations noted that the agreement would focus on how SDN can enable forwarding-plane support for some NFV use cases.
Connected with the partnership, ONF released its OpenFlow-enabled SDN and NFV “solution brief” providing ideas for carriers in combining NFV and SDN on their networks.
A recent report from Infonetics Research, based on conversations with telecom operators representing 51% of worldwide telecom capital expenditures, found that 29% of those surveyed are currently deploying SDN and 52% plan to evaluate SDN deployments by the end of the year. The survey also found that 97% of those questioned plan to deploy SDN at some point, with 93% saying they plan on deploying NFV.
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