Software-defined networking developments are occurring at a rapid pace as telecoms and other organizations begin to see their early investments pay off. For instance, RCR Wireless previously reported that Huawei recently unveiled a traffic optimization engine for SDN use. The most recent development regarding SDN technology came out of Santa Clara, Calif., where wireless communications provider Broadcom Corporation announced a new specification for OpenFlow Data Plane Abstraction. This should come as good news for carriers that are interested in the service-enhancing applications of SDN.
OpenFlow is one of – if not the – most widely used method of deploying SDN capabilities, offering a standard platform for telecoms to utilize. The hope surrounding OpenFlow is that it will unite efforts to develop SDN solutions and applications, thereby extending the technology's footprint among carriers and other companies. Because the protocol is open source, technicians from across the telecom industry have the opportunity to collaborate and work towards a common goal: SDN maturity.
Broadcom's OF-DPA v1.0 specification will support this overall effort by allowing SDN applications to run more effectively and to be scaled more broadly across a network. A commonly stated benefit of SDN is the ability to build out services to network users with ease, and Broadcom's new specification will reportedly simplify this process to an even greater degree. Specifically, OF-DPA v1.0 is designed to better use the OpenFlow 1.3.1 Switch when used with Broadcom StrataXGS Ethernet Switch devices. The specification will make numerous tables present on a switch accessible to controllers, enabling more effective network usage and enhancing overall performance levels.
Networking experts from across various industries have expressed their admiration for this latest development, noting the potential for organizations to leverage best-of-breed network infrastructure.
"OpenFlow multi-table-based programming of the switch hardware can enable implementation of important dynamic provisioning use cases at scale and help lower OPEX," said Akio Iijima, Chief Product Architect for NEC Corporation's Converged Network Division. "The open nature of the Broadcom OF-DPA solution and implementation on open switch hardware designs can foster a rich ecosystem of multi-vendor switches. Such switches can be managed by advanced OpenFlow Controllers such as the NEC ProgrammableFlow Controller."
