AT&T and Colt Technology Services announced a trial of a standard SDN application programming interface (API) that enabled users to reserve ports, order a point-to-point Ethernet service, flex the bandwidth up and down and turn down the service in near-real time.
During the trial between the two networks in the U.S. and Europe, AT&T successfully provisioned network services between the east coast of the U.S. and various locations in Europe. This allowed SDN-to-SDN control using a programmatic API-to-API interface between the separate SDN architectures, proving that SDN-managed services can be set up and run across multiple networks in just minutes. They can also be managed and flexed in near-real time. This creates a template for providers to deploy new services in a matter of minutes over each other’s networks.
The companies said they plan to share the network-to-network interface and open API code with standards bodies and industry forums.
“Our work at AT&T Labs and AT&T Foundry, and our collaboration with Colt will help enable customers to have more cost-efficient, flexible and adaptable networks,” said Roman Pacewicz, senior vice president, Offer Management and Service Integration, AT&T Business Solutions. “Businesses looking to provide a seamless connected environment for their customers can benefit greatly from a unified industry ecosystem that’s focused on interoperability.”
“This proof of concept is a key building block giving enterprises the power to provision scalable, flexible network services on-demand. The API in our trial makes managing integrated SDNs accessible, agile, flexible, and easy to adopt,” said Rajiv Datta, chief technology officer, Colt. “As use cases and APIs continue to evolve, we’ll be able to add attributes, services and enhancements that will drive further innovation. This will be critical as SDN becomes increasingly important in our business climate.”
http://about.att.com/story/first_successful_software_defined_networking_interoperability_trial.html
