Carriers and Vendors Conduct Transport SDN Testing

Nine vendors and several global are planning to conduct an interoperability test and demonstration of Transport SDN.

The demo, which is organized by the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) and the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), includes participation of ADVA Optical Networking, Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Coriant, Fiberhome, Fujitsu, Huawei, NEC Corporation of America and ZTE. China Mobile, China Telecom, TELUS and Verizon are hosting the testing in their labs.

OpenFlow extensions developed in the ONF Optical Transport Working Group are being prototyped and tested in the demo in both CDPI and CVNI forms. Vendors are also testing prototypes of Controller Northbound interfaces for Service Request and Topology functions developed as an OIF activity. The framework of the demo is cloud-bursting or application-based bandwidth-on-demand between data center sites. Testing based on this real-world use case illustrates potential deployment of Transport SDN technology, common interfaces required, needs for interoperability and any operational challenges.

Results will be shared in October in a whitepaper and at the Layer123 SDN and OpenFlow World Congress.

“The ability to bring vendors into carrier labs to test prototype technology provides unparalleled opportunity for industry-wide collaboration,” said Vishnu Shukla of Verizon and president of the OIF.  “This joint work is an initial step in solving the practical issues of implementing transport SDN in commercial networks with the shared goal to make transport networks more programmable in order to enable a new era of dynamic services.”

“We are pleased to join forces with the OIF to demonstrate OpenFlow-based transport SDN capabilities for and with the world’s leading operators,” said Dan Pitt, executive director of ONF. “ONF is committed to combined efforts like this to achieve interoperability and widespread adoption of open SDN in the service provider community and beyond.”

http://www.layer123.com/

http://www.oiforum.com/public/Global_Transport_SDN_Demo_2014.html